Resources and ideas about children's understanding of
Time
A suggested framework for developing
pupils’ grasp of time and chronology
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Whatever the age of pupils, there are different
strands of time and chronology which teachers can address in order
to develop pupils’ sense of the past. For the sake of convenience,
these have been labelled T1-T4. |
T1:
The "mechanics" of time; dating systems and conventions, time
vocabulary, how time "works"- Developing understanding of the
range of terms which historians use to classify duration and period. As Tim
Lomas has pointed out, "an understanding of change and time is helped
by particular terminology and conventions." (Teaching and assessing
historical understanding, London, Historical Association, p. 22)
T2::
Building up a framework or map of the past, in terms of a developing sense
of what bits of history fit in where- an overview of periods of history,
and the ability to relate events and issues that have been studied to an
overall conceptual framework of chronology and sequence in history. This
includes a widening sense of the existence of "histories"- there
are many "strands" and chronologies in history, there is more
than one narrative of the past. A developing awareness that as well as the
story of British political and constitutional history, and European
history, there are many other histories- the history of medicine and
technology, social and economic history, military and diplomatic history,
women’s history, the history of political thought etc. Some commentators
(see for example Beevor,
have suggested that recent trends in history teaching have meant that
pupils do not always develop a coherent "overview" of the past.
T3:
There are some parts of history where pupils need to have a clear grasp of
the order of events pertaining to a particular event or crisis if they are
to acquire a clear grasp of the topic in question. If they have got a
confident grasp of the precise order of events, and can explain the
relationships between those events, they are some way to being able to
construct an explanation of the event in relation to a question asked about
it. Examples would include the sequence of events leading up to the Battle
of Hastings, or the outbreak of World War 1.
T4:
An understanding of "Deep Time"- the scale and scope of human,
and the Earth’s history. Understanding that there was life before the
Romans, a time before the past was recorded in written form, and a time
before there were humans on Earth
The suggestion is that over time, all these
areas of children’s understanding of time and chronology will be
addressed and developed.
Other Time Issues:
Why is Time important?
Some thumbnail
summaries of research and ideas about children's understanding of Time
Some references to
writing about children's understanding of Time
Developing pupils' Time
vocabulary
Some recent models for
progression in children's understanding of Time
Some web links to
sites which address aspects of children's understanding of Time
Back to Time Menu
Back to History
PGCE
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