The Actions Used by Children`s and Their Underlying Theories whilst Engaged in Balance Tasks
Kwi Ok Lee , Nam Hee Woo
Abstract
This study attempted to analyze in detail the actions used by children and to uncover the theories used by those children whilst engaged in solving balance tasks. Sixty children, aged between 3 to 6 from “H” child care center located in Seoul were selected as the subjects. The children were asked to balance 8 different blocks by putting them on a bar one by one. Two of the 8 blocks were balanced by the center of the length of the block, two were unbalanced by the center of the length because another block is glued on the side of the bottom block, three blocks were unbalanced due to the insertion of a piece of metal in the side of the blocks, and one was completely unbalanced because it consisted of three layers of blocks glued obliquely. Fifteen actions undertaken by the children in solving the tasks were analyzed and divided into 6 categories：place, turning, push, press, support, and others. Children used three theories which were ``no theories``, ‘length centered theory`` and ‘considered both length and weight theory`` whilst engaged in balance tasks.
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