Features of the development of ideas about the cyclicity of spacetime processes in older preschool children

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the opportunities of development of cyclic representations of preschool children. The ideas about the cyclicity of space-time processes belong to the group of social ideas and are generalized mental formations that reflect the space-time patterns that exist in culture (parts of the day and seasons) in the mind of the individual. These representations allow the child to find mutual transitions of opposites in the process of the changing of the seasons and parts of the day, as units of the development of the surrounding world, and to correlate them with each other (to see and understand the built-in cycles). An educational experiment is described where the children were suggested to solve some problems that required the application of dialecticalmental actions. The evidence obtained as a result of this experiment lead to a conclusion that cyclic representations may be amplified through specifically designed educational program.