O pensamento animista em crianças e adolescentes em idade escolar

Abstract

A sort technique using cards illustrating living and non-living objects was utilized to investigate animistic thinking among 71 school-age children and adolescents. Two kinds of questions were posed to different groups in order to identify the influence of the type of question. A tendency toward a larger number of replies coherent with the criteria adopted for analysis was found to occur with increasing subject age. The away a question is asked affects both the attribution of life to non-living objects and the justifications used. No groups characteristically using certain criteria as justification were identified. A few implications in terms of biology teaching are discussed.