Abstract
The purpose of this study was to find out conservation concept acquisition in children of pre-operational and concrete periods. The data in this study were obtained through experimental methods with 62 children(28 males and 34 females) of 3-11 ages in Korean rural areas. The Piagetian instruments devised by Gelman were used for the study ; length, liquid, quantity, mass, and volume conservation tasks. Percentile and $x^2$-test were applied for the statistical analysis of data: and the results of the experiment are as follows: 1) Most children aged 3-9 years did not appear to understand that the length of sticks stayed the same regardless of position. 2) In liquid quantity conservation, children centered their attentions on one aspect ; juice level or number of container. Their conservation concept was developed correlating with ages. 3) In the experiment of mass conservation by using play dough, only 7.1% of children of pre-operational period and 47.1% of concrete period affirmed that the amounts of play dough were same after changed shape. 4) In volume task, 29.4% children aged 7 to 11 years admitted to conservation. 5) It is found that girls acquired length conservation earlier than boys, while there was no significant difference between boys and girls in other conservation tasks.