The Study On The Development Of 3-6-year-olds' Understanding Of Economic Concepts

The purpose of the study was to find out preschool children's understanding in elementary economic concepts, their recognition and comparison of the value of money; to find out how they understood the relationship between the goods' price and its material; to know whether they could understand the exchange of equal values or not; and to analyze preschool children's ability to use money.A sample of 120 young children aged 3-6 years was selected from three ordinary kindergartens in Shanghai. The sample was divided into three age groups: the children in their first year at kindergarten (Mean=46, SD=2.9); the children in their second year at kindergarten (Mean=57, SD=4.3); and the children in their third year at kindergarten (Mean=69, SD=3.7). There are 40 children in each group, with equal number of boys and girls. Individual interview, oral report and role-play game were adopted to investigate children's understanding of elementary economic concepts, recognition and comparison of the value of money, knowing about the relationship between the goods' price and its material, understanding of exchange of equal values, and ability of using money.The results indicated that: 1) Children aged 3-6 had their own understanding for some elementary economic concepts. With the growth of the age, children's knowledge about the concept of economy was more comprehensive and systematic. 2) Elder children tended to have better abilities of recognizing and comparing the value of money. Children's ability of recognition of money was helpful for their comparison of the different face values of money. 3) The trend of development of children's ability to use money was: i ) Children had no awareness of payment; ii) Children recognized that the customer must pay but did not discriminate between the various kinds of money or bills; iii) Children established an exact correspondence between the value of the various monetary denominations and the prices of the objects; iv)In some cases, children denied that the type of money in question permitted the purchase of a particular kind of object; v) Children recognized that some things cost more, others less, and that certain amount of money were not sufficient for a thing; vi) Children were able to calculate the correct amount of change. However, each stage above is not independent but intercross. 4) Children aged 3-6 might not be able to understand the relationship between the goods' price and its material yet. Even 6-year-old children couldn't estimate the price of a commodity. 5) Children of 5-year-old began to understand exchange of equal values. More than half of the children of 6-year-old had the knowledge of exchange of equal values. 6) The significant positive correlation emerged among children's performance on elementary economic concepts, money recognition and money usage. The age around 5 might be an important period for preschool children to develop their economic concepts, the recognition of money and their initial abilities in using money.