Development And Application Of The Interactive Test For 4-6-Year-old Children's Exploration Propensity

Exploration propensity refers to the tendency of individuals to respond to new and different stimuli,such as observing objects of new,manipulating and exploring the relationship between phenomena.Since children are unable to complete the self-report questionnaire,now the survey and test of exploration propensity of children mostly are completed by adults.The first is the questionnaire of teachers or parents,and the second is the observation in the natural state.The former is difficult to avoid subjective and general,while the latter needs to wait for the natural occurrence of exploring behavior and the existence of Hawthorne effect.This paper attempts to develop an interactive test of exploration propensity of children to make up for the shortcomings of the current measurement of children's exploration propensity.On the basis of literature review and preliminary interaction with children,the form of the test and the selection principle of activity task were determined.The test was conducted through operating objects,interacting one-to-one,and focusing on the whole process.This interactive test is different from the paper-and-pencil based self-reported test,in that each task takes a relatively long time.In view of this,before the preliminary test and screening of the project,we improve each task through repeated interaction between the interviews and the subjects,so as to ensure the quality of the tasks entered the preliminary test.Then,we screen the tasks through preliminary test and project analysis.Finally,the selected formal test is used to test the reliability and validity.The results show that the developed "Interactive Test for 4-6-year-old Children's Exploration Propensity" includes 11 items,each items are evaluated from three aspects: exploration interest,exploration operation and exploration cause and effect.The test has good reliability and validity.Based on the development of interactive test for exploration propensity,thispaper tries to explore the developmental status of children's exploration propensity and investigates the influence of exploration propensity on cognitive development.The acquisition of number concept is the key to the cognitive development of children aged 4-6,which represents the cognitive development level of this stage.If exploration propensity is an important internal factor affecting children's cognitive development,then the way of parents' company(that is,the way of parents' intermediary activities)is an important external factor.This paper will explore the influence of these two important factors on the development of the number concept of children.70 children aged 4-6 years were tested by the interactive exploratory tendency test,the questionnaire of parental intermediary activities and the number conservation task.The results show that--1.The overall situation of parental intermediary activities is more positive.2.Most children aged 4-6 have already formed one to one correspondence,and the level of number concept is in the transitional stage from no formed to formed.3.Children aged 4-6 have a higher tendency to explore;There was no gender difference in exploring propensity;The older the children,the better their propensity to explore causal associations.4.There is a significant positive correlation between the number concept and the parents' intermediary activities,which can positively predict the development of number concept.The better the parents' intermediary activity modes are,the better the children's number concept development will be.5.Children's exploration interest,exploration operation,exploration cause and effect and number concept development are also significantly positively correlated.The exploration cause and effect can effectively and positively predict the number concept development of children.The stronger children's exploration cause and effect is,the better number concept development will be.