An Experimental Research On Cultivating The Sense Of Responsibility Of 3～6 Years Old Preschoolers

Abstract Responsibility, in other words, a sense of responsibility, refers to an individual's recognition and affects towards his social role and its responsibility and the corresponding behaviors in the social life. The sense of responsibility plays an important role in preschoolers' psychological development. It is the basic element of preschoolers' psychological health and an indispensable part of their personalities and social qualities. Starting from the structure of preschooler's sense of responsibility, including the self-responsibility, task responsibility, responsibility towards others, collective responsibility, mistake responsibility and promise responsibility, this research devises the instructional activities based on the three forms of responsibility (the recognition, affects and behaviors) to cultivate the sense of responsibility of the children from the junior, intermediate and senior classes of the preschools. The research program, taking 320 children from the junior, intermediate and senior classes of two preschools of Dalian as samples, first confirms the characteristics of the development of their sense of responsibility through theoretical analysis, observation and case study, devises 12 instructional activities for the preschoolers of 3 different ages based on these characteristics, altogether 36 activities, then carries on the experiment of cultivation with the 36 activities as instructional factors. The results of the experiment reveal: 1. The activities (devised from the cognitive, affective and behavioral perspective) can accelerate the development of preschoolers' responsibility effectively. 2. The activities devised for preschoolers of different ages have different characteristics. 3. There is a critical period in cultivating preschoolers' sense of responsibility. The critical age is about 4~5 years old (at the intermediate class of the preschool.). 4. It is suggested for the teachers of preschoolers to create all the favorable conditions based on the structure of responsibility from the cognitive, affective and behavioral perspective for promoting the development of preschoolers' sense of responsibility quickly and all-sidedly.