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JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
as other children care about being accepted into a group of peers,
gifted children also need friends and support from those around
them (Rimm, S., Siegle, D., Davis, G., 2018).
Knowing the individual characteristics of gifted children from
the cognitive, emotional, and social viewpoint is very important,
but we must not ignore the specific manifestations of each
individual and the need to assess each child individually.
Giftedness cannot be understood as an isolated phenomenon,
because it is manifested in the whole structure of an individual's
personality. One of the individual characteristics of learners
(children) is also represented by preconceptions, which arise
based on their knowledge and experience in the social
environment, but also by the influences of the environment itself
(Lopušná, A., 2008/2009). These preconceptions can manifest
differences in gifted children, perhaps even in individual areas.
3 Diagnostics of Children’s Preconceptions
In the context of the modern understanding of the educational
process, a pedagogical diagnosis is a natural part of the teacher's
work. The pedagogical diagnosis aims to support learning and
comprehensive development affecting the future standard and
quality of an individual’s living (Syslová, Z., Kratochvílová, J.,
2015). Teacher’s diagnostics represents the starting point for the
creation of optimal educational conditions corresponding to the
characteristics of individuals. It is desirable to respect the
abilities and possibilities of each child (Slezáková, T.,
Tirpáková, A. 2006). Knowledge of individual ideas and
experience, i. e. preconceptions, is a condition for acquiring new
knowledge. The importance of early identification of gifted
children lies in the early detection of hidden or obvious signals
of this phenomenon in order to effectively and adequately
stimulate their abilities in various special educational programs
(Duch
ovičová, J., 2007). It is critical already in preschool age
when
children
undergo rapid growth and especially
developmental changes, which are a great opportunity for their
further formation (Laznibatová, J., 2012). An overall view of the
child's knowledge can also be obtained based on the diagnostics
of his/her preconceptions about phenomena (phenomena,
objects, etc.) (Koleňáková, R. Š., Teleková, R., 2019).
The basic source of preconceptions are cognitive processes, on
the basis of which children attach importance to the phenomena
around them, they construct certain comprehensive ideas of this
world, which in this way becomes meaningful for them.
Although cognitive activity is a key source of preconceptions,
we cannot think about them only at this level, given the wide and
diverse range of influences involved in their formation and
modification. Preconceptions are being modified in terms of
quantity and quality based on the influence of internal
(personality psychological, biological characteristics) and
external (social environment) factors together with the active
involvement of an individual in the activity. Preconceptions are
the result of the functioning of not only cognitive but also socio-
emotional structures of pupils, which, due to their age and
stimuli from the environment, represent psychological
conditions and specific adaptation to the environment. Every
pupil finds himself/herself in various situations every day, in
which he/she gradually gets to know the people, phenomena,
things, and objects around him/her in his/her way, thus creating
unique and original preconceptions. Concerning the specific
characteristics of gifted children, we conclude that these
preconceptions differ significantly compared to their peers. The
reason is that the creation of preconceptions, as stated by V.
Kosíková (2011), is significantly affected not only by nature but
also by the level of mental operations, width and depth of the
concept learning, and building relations between them. The
structure of preconceptions is constructed analogously to a
scientific theory, but it emphasizes the current state of
knowledge and the intellectual level of a child. The authors J.
Škoda and P. Doulík (2010) point out the fact that children's
preconceptions include not only knowledge but have a much
more complex structure. Due to their diversity and variety, we
cannot understand them as a unidimensional set, but it is
necessary to perceive them as multidimensional entities, which
consist of a cognitive, affective, and structural component
(Pivarč, J., Škoda, J., Doulík, P., 2012).
There is currently no unified system for giftedness diagnosis in
individuals in our conditions. Rather, it is an accidental
discovery and observation of the child's exceptional abilities by
parents or teachers who, based on these facts, recommend
him/her for further diagnostic examinations by a psychologist.
We also perceive the identification of the gifted children in
education as a problem, since teachers do not have any
diagnostic tools, but also that they have little time to create their
tools. Nevertheless, people still rely on teachers in this area, even
if their identification is more or less based on their subjective
opinion. To some extent, this problem can be solved by
identifying children's preconceptions about selected phenomena,
which will allow the teacher to indicate the level of potential
giftedness, regardless of the school results, and thus create a
certain order of children. However, a possible problem is that
teachers rarely have time to identify children's preconceptions.
They take it for granted that children have a certain basic level of
knowledge, and they also fear children's questions that they will
not be able to answer (Chen, A. P., Kirkby, K. C., Morin, P. J.,
2006). Within these terms,
Ľ. Held and B. Pupala (1993)
emphasize that based on their experiences, certain experience,
and a characteristic way of thinking, each pupil has certain
structures of their ideas (preconceptions) about the various
phenomena and objects of the surrounding world, which create a
kind of experiential knowledge that they use to navigate
themselves in everyday situations. Children have different
preconceptions, some are the same, similar, or also
contradictory. The teacher should know their form in individuals
as part of his/her diagnostics.
4 Research
The subject of the research is the diagnosis of preconceptions
and their potential in the pedagogical diagnosis of the giftedness
of preschool children. The main objective of the research was to
identify preconceptions of children of pre-primary education as
multidimensional entities (cognitive, affective, and structural
components) to a selected phenomenon from the emotional area
and to compare identified preconceptions in terms of intellectual
skills.
Based on the objective of the research, we set the following
research questions:
What are the preconceptions of pre-primary children about
the selected phenomenon from the emotional area?
What significance do children of pre-primary education see
in the existence of a selected phenomenon from the
emotional area?
What is the relationship and attitude of children of pre-
primary education to a selected phenomenon from the
emotional area?
How are the preconceptions about the selected
phenomenon from the emotional area in children of pre-
primary education different in terms of giftedness? We
concretise this research question into three research areas:
1.
Are there differences in the cognitive component of
children's preconceptions concerning
the selected
phenomenon of “success” in terms of intellectual skills?
2.
Are there differences in the affective component of
children's preconceptions concerning
the selected
phenomenon of “success” in terms of intellectual skills?
3.
Are there differences in the structural component of
children's preconceptions concerning
the selected
phenomenon of “success” in terms of intellectual skills?
4.1 Research Sample
The subject of our research were children of pre-primary
education. The selection of the research sample was purposive
and subject to the research objectives. A total of 39 participants
from kindergartens in Nitra, Nové Zámky, and Trenčín were
included in the research, of which 16 children were later
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