A Philosophical Inquiry On "Love" By Children In Large Classes

Love is the eternal theme of mankind,and it plays an important role in man’s life.Love is no exception for young children.After consulting the relevant literature,the author found that the previous research on love is more from the perspective of adults,while ignoring children’s thinking and confusion about love.In view of this,this research uses the philosophical exploration of "love" with young children to discover the understanding and confusion of "love" in the process of philosophical exploration.This research uses three cartoons with philosophical meanings and love-related themes as the carrier,and adopts methods such as interviews,painting methods,independent photography,and role-playing to develop children’s philosophy exploring activities with 40 children in a large class of S kindergarten in Changsha City.Then transcribed the collected children’s interview materials and painting works,and used NVivo11 pro software to encode,analyze,and extract related themes,and found children’s understanding and confusion of "love" in the process of philosophical inquiry.The research results show that children’s understanding of "love" mainly involves the understanding of "what is love","the expression of love" and "the meaning of love".Young children’s understanding of "what is love" mainly involves the definition of love,the object of love,and the nature of love;children’s understanding of "love expression" mainly involves five common ways of expressing love: providing services,spending good time together,making physical contact,giving gifts,and affirmative words and expressions;young children’s understanding of "the meaning of love" mainly includes three parts,namely,the meaning of love to themselves,the meaning of love to society,and the eternal meaning of love.In the process of philosophical inquiry,children’s confusion about "love" is mainly concentrated in four aspects: First,children’s confusion about fraternity,such as should people love everyone? Should one love everything? The second is the confusion of children’s expression of love.Do they still love if they are hurt? Does love have to be shared? The third is the eternal confusion of young children about love.Will love change?If the one you love is gone,will love disappear? Fourth,children are confused about love,which is self-denial,such as should people love themselves? And does love treat each other more importantly than yourself?Based on children’s understanding and confusion of “love”,the author analyzes the characteristics of the two and finds that the characteristics of children’s understanding of love are mainly concerned with giving love,having rich ways of expressing love,and having a positive and affirmative attitude towards love.The characteristic of children’s confusion about love is that children will think about some big questions about "love" and children’s confusion about love stems from children’s questioning of love.In addition,the author also reflected on carrying out philosophical inquiry activities with children in large classes and carrying out love education in kindergarten.In the process of philosophical inquiry,the author found that young children have the ability to conduct philosophical inquiry and are interested in thinking about big problems,but their listening ability is insufficient.And the author realizes that he needs to improve his philosophical literacy and the ability to ask questions and listen so that he can better carry out philosophical practice activities with children,and carry out love education at the kindergarten stage.The author believes that kindergarten educators should create opportunities for children to give love.Encourage children to express their love in a variety of ways,and give them space to explore love issues.