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

根据与小学三年级和四年级合二班相比，小学三年级和四年级班级将在2000-2002学年实施40多个课时（1课时约45分钟）。对其中的23个时期的日语和社会学课程进行了记录。这些记录都在报告中。通过对记录的分析，可以认识到三种观点。从三年级到四年级发展或变化的显著特征，从根本上是对外部世界从三维把握向四维（在空间和时间上）把握的发展或变化。但从三维把握到四维把握的转变中心似乎是在四年级的后半段。关于发展，有两个观点是重要的；1)第三个事物（如稻田）如何位于两个事物之间，（如河流和道路）ii)儿童如何理解一个事物是包含一个过程的存在（如道路有一个分支，然后是更多的分支）。在解决问题的过程中，三年级学生似乎比四年级学生更重视推理和想象，而四年级学生则比三年级学生更重视信息和知识。四年级学生对外部世界的四维把握是四年级学生的特点，导致他们有四维把握自己内心的倾向，进而对同学的思想和观点产生浓厚的兴趣。

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.