CHILDREN'S IDEAS ABOUT SYMBOLS OF SLOVAK STATEHOODOF

The subjects of the research were authentic utterances of 5-6-year-old children. They represented individual conceptions of concepts of the pre-primary curriculum- symbols of Slovak statehood (capital, anthem, president, state, state flag, state emblem) in a narrower or broader context. The aim of the research was to find out the content meanings of narrower and broader conceptions of concepts in 5-6-yearold children, which are the content of the state curriculum. We hypothesized that at the children's exit from pre-primary education, their conceptions of concepts are more similar to scientific concepts. The study answers two research questions: do children's narrower and broader conceptions of concepts confirm theory? Which are the exceptional, non-repetitive children's conceptions of concepts? The research strategy was qualitative. Children's authentic utterances enabled short individual interviews to be obtained. Children's utterances were analyzed, categorized, and interpreted. Narrower conceptions are associated with a pre-scientific conception or a naive conception (45%). A broader context of conceptions emerged for 42% of the children in the research set. 13% of the statements were categorized as "don't know" responses. Exceptional conceptions of the symbols of Slovak statehood result from children's experiences in everyday life. If children perceived them in different contexts, they explained them by some features of objective reality. These concepts are still abstract for children at this age. According to the findings, it is questionable whether teaching children about symbols of statehood is meaningful in kindergarten when children's narrower conceptions of the concepts prevail at the exit.