Abstract
An Experimental Study on the Formation of Designing and Making Activity in Middle Grade School Children
H. Joh & K. Amano
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of training program concerned with the designing and making (DM) activities and to discuss possibilities of organizing technical constructive activity in middle grade school children. Based on the theory of A. N. Leont'ev we can consider that the DM activity consists of the four components: (1) Goal formation, (2) Designing and drawing, (3) Construction, (4) Control and regulation. The teaching program consisted of 5 stages (21 steps in all). Six third grade school children who had not yet acquired Euclidian concepts of space received the experimental individual training for 3-4 months. As the results of training, it was found that all of children could acquire not only Euclidian concepts, but also independent DM activity, in which they could design and make the three-D objects and products from card board intended by themselves creatively and accurately. This study suggests that organizing DM activity in children arouses high motivation to activity and is very effective in promoting their learning and development.