초등학생의 법인지 발달에 관한 연구

This study aims to analyze elementary school students' cognitive levels regarding the law by grade level and to propose ways to improve the structure of law-related education content. To this end, 190 students in the 2nd, 4th, and 6th grades of elementary school were surveyed using an open-ended questionnaire to determine their level of awareness of the law. The results showed that elementary school students were largely at the pre-conventional level, while 6th graders demonstrated responses at the conventional and post-conventional levels. Significant differences were found between 2nd, 4th, and 6th graders in their concepts of law, and between 4th and 6th graders in their perceptions of the necessity of law, the possibility of violating the law. In terms of the possibility of changing the law, significant differences were observed between 2nd and 6th graders, as well as between 4th and 6th graders. In addition, with regard to self-awareness as a legal subject, higher-grade students tended to recognize a more active role as citizens. Based on these findings, the study proposed discussions on the development of law-related education tailored to the cognitive levels of elementary school students, case examples considering the domain of rules, research on the formation of misconceptions about law, educational experiences to foster students as legal subjects, and follow-up studies on the developmental stages of legal cognition across different age groups.