A STUDY OF THE THINKING AND UNDERSTANDING PROCESSES OF THE THIRD AND THE FOURTH GRADERS AND THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TWO PROCESSES IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LESSONS OF JAPANESE AND SOCIAL STUDIES

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More than 40 periods (1 period is about 45 minutes) were put into practice in 2000-2002 school years according to the plan in which lessons of the classes of the third grade and the forth grade will be put into practice in comparison with the combined classes of the third and fourth grades of elementary schools. The records of 23 periods of Japanese and Social Studies among these lessons have been made. These records are contained in the report. Three points of view are recognized through analysis of the records.1. The distinctive feature of development or change from the third to the fourth graders is fundamentally development or change from the three dimensional grasp to the four dimensional (in space and time) grasp of their outside world. But the center of the change from the three dimensional grasp to the four dimensional grasp seem to be at the latter half of the fourth grade. In connection with the development two points of view are important; i) how the third thing (e.g. rice fields) is between two things, (e.g. a river and a road) ii) how children understand a thing as an existence containing a process (e.g. a road with a branch and then more branches).2. In the processes to resolve problems the third grades seem to think reasoning and imagination more important than the fourth graders, but the latter think information and knowledge more important than the former.3. The four dimensional grasp of the outside world which is the characteristic of fourth graders lead them to the tendency in which they grasp their insides four-dimensionally, and furthermore to strong interest with classmates' thoughts and opinions.