Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to investigate the conserva¬tion of length, mass and liquid quantity in Thai children aged 5.5 to 11 years by using the cognitive dissonance procedure as a training method. Subjects were 112 first, second, third and forth graders from Wat Hualampong School in Bangkok metropolis. There were 4 sessions in this research. Session 1. (Pretest) Each subject was individually pretested on four tests : the conservation of mass, the conservation of liquid quantity, the conservation of length using two sticks, and the conservation of length using several sticks respectively. The subjects were, then, divided into four groups: nonconservers, transitional conservers, conservers and control group. Each group consisted of 28 subjects. Subjects that were not in those four groups served as the observers in the training session. Session 2 (Training Session). Each group except the control group received directions and training from the experimenter with the cognitive dissonance procedure; that is, giving the judgements and reasons contrary to those they gave on the pretest. The transitional conservers were divided into two subgroups and received the different training procedure. One group received correct answers; the other, wrong ones. Session 3 (Posttest 1). Approximately 15 minutes after the training session, each subject was individually posttested on the four tests again. The control group subjects were also posttested in this session. Session 4 (Posttest 2). Approximately 7 days after the train¬ing session, again each subject was individually posttested on the four tests. Data of each test was analysed by the Arithmetic Mean and the comparison of the arithmetic means by the t-test. The results of this research were that the nonconservers and the transitional conservers who were given the correct answers signifi¬cantly gained conservation. The transitional conservers who were given the wrong answers, and the conservers did not significantly lose conser¬vation. The control group did not make progress in conservation.