The Study On The Development Of Analogical Reasoning Ability Under Mathematics Context In Young Children Aged4-6

The purpose of this study was to investigate the developmental characteristics in young children’s clasical analogical reasoning ability and analogical problem solving ability under mathematics context and the relationship between. A sample of154children aged4-6was randomly selected from two ordinary preschools in Putuo District and Changning District of Shanghai. Measurement of classical analogical reasoning in this study was synthetically adapted from the instrument created by Zhiyun Ge (1985), Xiuwei Xu (1993) and Richland (2006). Measurement of analogical problem solving in this study was synthetically adapted from the pre-existing research paradigm about children’s analogical problem solving,such as the classical ball problem,fetching things problem and removing things problem (Holyoak,1984; Chen,1997;Brown,1990), and the classical water pot problem of Luchins (Luchins,1942). The study examed the statues of4-6years old children’s developmental characteristics of classical analogical reasoning and analogical problem solving ability under mathematics context by means of descriptive statistics; the effects of age and gender on their performances was examined by M-ANOVA; the correlations between4-6years old children’s classical analogical reasoning and analogical problem solving ability under mathematics context were examined using correlation analysis. The education implication included in children’s classical analogical reasoning and analogical problem solving of the study was also discussed.The results indicated that:(1)4-6years old children already have a certain level of development of clas-ical analogical reasoning ability under mathematics situation. In general, as the growth of the age, children’s classical analogical reasoning ability has developed very quickly,5-6year old children’s performance was significantly better than the performance of4-5year old children.(2) In classical analogy reasoning task, only part of the4-5year old children can reason by basis analogical relationship and correctly explain analogical relationship, however, most of them ignored the relationship among the analog a:b:c:d, only chose according to the surface similarity between c:d or some surface characteristics have nothing to do. Most of the children aged5-6can choose according to the relationship among the analog a:b:c:d, and were able to generalize and explain analogy relationship better.(3)4-6years old children’s classical analogical reasoning ability exists significant age difference, not gender gap.(4)4-6years old children already have a certain development level of analogical problem solving ability under mathematics situation, in general, as the growth of the age, children’s analogical problem solving ability has developed very quickly. The performance of children aged5-6was significantly better than that of children aged4-5.(5) In analogical problem solving tasks, nearly half of children aged4-5solve problems using analogy. However, most of the children aged5-6not only can solve problems correctly or partial correctly using analogy, but also have a clear consciousness of the analogy.(6)4-6years old children’s analogical problem solving ability under mathematics situation exists significant age difference, but no gender difference.(7)4-6years old children’s ability of solving superficial similarity analogical problem and solving structure similarity analogical problem under the mathematics situation are significant difference, both children aged4-5and children aged5-6performanced better in solving superficial similarity analogical problem than in solving structure similarity analogical problem.(8.)4-6years old children’s classical analogical reasoning ability and analogical problem solving ability under mathematics situation exists a certain degree of positive correlation.