Verified Document

Child's View Of Time Essay

Child's View Of Time Understanding the complexity of chronology is often challenging for the elementary student, yet this understanding forms one of the basic paradigms of a child's developing a sense of period, change, causation, and evolution. This is not just true when thinking about historical events, but in the sense of mathematical progression, scientific experiments (change over time), certainly the concept of biological evolution, and even more a child's sense of identity that aids in creating a contextual reference for the present. In the 21st century, it is also vital that students begin to understand and relate to broad reaching concepts of development if they are to become productive citizens of a global world. In addition, words, phrases, and conceptions relating to chronology are quite frequent in children's literature, curriculum text, and lecture material, and it is common to quiz students on what happened, when did it happen, why did it happen, and less frequently, but still important, what might have happened or what will happen based on past chronology.

Ironically, this is not a new concern within the educational field. An 1892 article in The Parents' Review suggests that children need to learn about their own time and place, work backwards, and then accentuate skills towards future projection. The article further suggests that is not just chronological understanding that is vital for a child's development, but the ability to accurately judge and estimate how time passes. For instance, it is not just important for a child to understand chronological events. Instead, perceiving chronology and time are akin to telling a child, You have 15 minutes to complete this exercise. Thus, from a developmental paradigm, the nature of time and chronology are both important indicators of human development and necessary skills for the modern learner.

Simsek (2007) finds that in order to develop a concept of temporal history, first measurements of time, distance and spatial relationship must be mastered in a way that allows children to express an understanding of historical time, as well as to relate it to their current reading and experiential levels. Every child constructs their concepts of space and time quite differently and different stages of their...

Piaget describes an invariant sequence in which children construct such concepts with a logical evolving hierarchy; elementary constructions must precede ones that are more sophisticated. Through this process, the child learns to cope with the universe and to organize situations and accumulated facts within a larger template that becomes chronology. This actually occurs at the end of the sensorimotor stage, or around 3-4 years of age. During this frame, the child cannot represent "known" space or a sense of a city block or the time it takes to walk that block, but they can envision that the city block is different from their yard or living room. Similarly, as children learn to use various measuring instruments, they initiate higher-level thought processes to establish relationships between events and things. A more robust stage of measurement occurs during the concrete operational period; yet it is not until formal operations, around age twelve, that children can adequately express general notions of quantification and similarities, or begins to understand the differences between past, present and future (Simsek, 2007).
The article uses a relatively small sample of fifth grade students in Turkey. Variables included timetables, photographs, household tools, artifacts, etc. And the students' interests, reactions and attitudes were measured. The small sample size and limited time frame are certainly weaknesses in the study, but prove that more research is necessary in order to gauge a broader vision of what it takes to help elementary learners both understand the concept of chronological development, and be able to use the concept in their expression of both quantitative and qualitative explanations (e.g. math, science, the humanities, etc.).

Barton (2004) explains that time is a complex concept. Most people, for instance, feel that it is a progression that goes on forever, unaffected by everything else -- typically measured by the clock or calendar. As a concept, time is quite artificial -- it is determined by the way humans divide up a terrestrial day, seasons, or a contrived manner of ordering life. Time is also a measure of the duration of events and the intervals between them. While the subject of time is somewhat intuitive in humans, it…

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Barton, K. (2004). Helping Students Make Sense of Historical Time. Primary History, 13(1), 13-16.

Simsek, A. (2007). The Improvement of Chronological perceptions Among Fifth Grade Students. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 7(1), 610-15.

Van Boxtel, C., et a. (2012). That's In The Time of the Romans! Cognition and Instruction, 30(2), 113-45.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Children: Exposure to Violence Through the Media
Words: 2785 Length: 8 Document Type: Research Paper

Children: Exposure to Violence Through the Media The extent to which exposure to violence creates violent children and/or aggressive behavior is a subject which has been debated in a comprehensive manner. However, the fundamental research findings are consistent. The research continues to demonstrate that exposure to violence creates negative manifestations in the behavior of children. "While violence is not new to the human race, it is an increasing problem in modern

Children and Television Over Time, Television Has
Words: 1819 Length: 6 Document Type: Thesis

Children and Television Over time, television has become a must have household item/electronic for most American households. Today, unlike several decades ago, a television viewer has a wide range of channels to choose from. However, the ever increasing relevance of the television set has not come without criticism. In most cases, the criticism that has been leveled against television viewing has largely been founded on the impact it has on its

Children and Television
Words: 2051 Length: 7 Document Type: Term Paper

Children and Television Television may be an almost universal feature on the domestic scene, however it is not sued I the same way by everyone who has access to a set (Gunter 1). The television set has become an integral piece of the household furniture, and practically every house has at least one set, if not more, which means that children are born into a world in which television is present

Child Abuse How Large Is
Words: 4401 Length: 16 Document Type: Term Paper

The second includes verbal and emotional assaults including persistent patterns of belittling, denigrating, scapegoating, and other nonphysical, but clearly hostile or rejecting behaviors, such as repeated threats of beatings, sexual assault, and abandonment. The third, residual, category includes other forms of emotional abuse such as attempted sexual or physical assaults; throwing something at a child but missing; withholding shelter, sleep, or other necessities as punishment, and economic exploitation (p.11). According

Child With Disability
Words: 2379 Length: 7 Document Type: Term Paper

fifth of all Americans have some type of disability (United States Census Bureau, 2000). Alarming? Yes, however, disabilities do not discriminate and people of all ages, race, and socioeconomic backgrounds can be affected or have a family member who has a disability. Disabilities in children may include, but are not limited to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Asperger's Disorder, Autism, Central Auditory Processing Disorder, Dyscalculia, Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dysprazia, Learning Disabilities, and

Children During Their Elementary School Years Are
Words: 942 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Children during their elementary school years are just beginning to develop their basic life habits. Food preferences, health behaviors, safe practices, and enthusiasm for learning are all being integrated into the child's sense of self at this stage. Children are learning to play with others in an empathetic fashion, to take pride in meaningful academic accomplishments, and are beginning to take responsibility for their personal safety and well-being. The

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now