Abstract: The origin of species is an important constituent part of science education of scientific biology and children’s intuitive cognition on the origins of species is an essential component of na?ve biology. Previous researches have found that there were four types of explanations endorsed by western children when they considered the origins of species: Evolution, responses indicating that a species was transformed from another species without intentions; Creation, responses indicating that super natural agents such as God created or put a species on earth with intentions; Artificialism, responses indicating that human made or created a species with intentions; Spontaneous-generation, responses indicating natural origins for species which are proximate explanations without intentions (e.g. “emerged from the earth’’). Among the four types of explanations, Evolution and Creation are explanations of ultimate causes and they contradict with each other; Artificialism, posed by Piaget, is a phenomenon that is common among young children; Spontaneous-generation is a proximate explanation that many young children endorsed. Most Chinese children are grown up in a environment with no religious beliefs. Whether or not their intuitive thoughts on the origins of species are different from their western counterparts is a question that worth exploring. The current research used in-depth interviewing method, employing open-ended and closed-ended questions respectively, to explore cognitive development on origins of species (animals and human-beings). Children were from the third year in the kindergarten and first grade, second grade and fourth grade of primary school. The results of open-ended task showed that Chinese children had gone through shifts from mainly spontaneous-generational explanations to mixed spontaneous-genarational and evolutionary explanations and then to mainly evolutionary explanations; evolutionary explanations prevailed over other explanations among the children in fourth grade. What were consistent with what had been found in western cultures were that more evolutionary explanations were endorsed by children with age. The cultural differences were shown in that Chinese children did not echo their western counterparts to be exclusive creationists at about eight to ten years old. In the closed-ended question situation, Chinese children were more inclined to endorse multiple explanations than they were in the open-ended question situation, which was consistent with what had been found in western cultures. The results demonstrated that children’s cognition on the origins of species became more scientific with age. However, their cognitive development was not in the form of replacing one origin cognition with another but in the form of coexistence. The current research results demonstrated that multiple epistemologies coexisted within children’s cognitive system. This was also consistent with what had been found in western children as well as adults. When children are confronted with scientific questions such as the origins of species, they might endorse scientific(such as evolution) as well as supernatural(such as creation) explanations, depending on the situations and their needs. This gives some implications for science education. As long as multiple epistemologies on the origins of species coexist within children’s cognitive system, future studies could focus on what factors influence both children and adults’ endorsement of the multiple epistemologies and how the factors work. The research results reflected cross-cultural consistency as well as diversities between western and Chinese children.

Key words: origins of species, cognitive development, naive biology, multiple epistemologies, science education

摘要： 本研究采用临床访谈法，采用开放式和封闭式问题情境,测查了5-13岁儿童对物种起源认知的发展。结果显示儿童对物种起源的解释越来越符合科学的解释，这种认知发展过程并不是以一种起源认知替代另一种起源认知的过程，而是多种起源认知以某种方式共存于儿童的认知系统中。本研究结果既显示了儿童对物种起源认知发展的跨文化一致性，也体现了不同文化和宗教环境影响下的差异性。

关键词: 物种起源, 认知发展, 朴素生物学理论, 认知发展多重解释系统, 科学教育