Title of Presentation:

Children’s Temporal Cognition and the History Curriculum of the Primary School

Eileen O’ Sullivan, Department of Learning, Society and Religious Education

Examine how the history

curriculum embraces the challenges of a globalised world;

To focus specifically on how children’s temporal understanding is fostered through the history curriculum.

Focus of my presentation

Curricular changes

H is to ry C iv ic s

S o c ia l S tu d iesD a o ne o las

G e og rap hy E le m e n ta ry S cie n ce

E n v iro n m e n ta l S tu d iesE o la s Im sh a o il

S o c ia l a nd E n v iron m e n ta l S tud ies

History is now part of the Social,

Environmental and Scientific Education (SESE) Programme

History in the revised curriculum

GeographyHistory

Science

Key Skills in History – Working as a Historian

Developing Empathy

Synthesis and Communication

Using Evidence

Cause and Effect

Change and Continuity

Time and Chronology

Revised Curriculum of Primary School (1999) – History

extended as a subject to the infant level; Based on a premise that young children’s temporal

cognition can be fostered and developed from a young age;

Recent research into teaching and learning in history supports this decision;

Hoodless - UK-based research (1996, 2002); Freidman (since 1982); Harner (1982);

Data derived from a recent study of Irish primary school children (2012) provides emphatic evidence that young children are capable of embracing aspects of temporal cognition, even in the early years.

History in the Infant Classes

Connecting the child with the past; Contingent upon the child having a “sense” of time; From the infant level, children display an emerging

concept of temporality; Recent research exposes the multi-faceted, complex

nature of temporality; Also exposes the challenge for classroom practice

and the professional development of teachers; Central to the development of mature historical

understanding.

Temporality

The complex nature of temporality is understated and barely recognised in the curriculum: “children of this age-range have “… a very imperfect sense of

time” (p. 3). children’s sense of time and chronology can be aided by “…

some carefully chosen history work”(p. 4).

They conclude that while young children’s sense of time may not develop automatically, there is merit in teaching time and chronology concepts at this level.

This approach to temporality may be responsible for the inadequate provision for its development in history curriculum.

Temporality in the revised curriculum

Strand 1: The Irish study (2012)

Key research question: How do young children conceptualise time?

Series of case studies conducted in two schoolsStudy aimed to present an accurate, illustrative

selection of responses from a typical cross-section of primary pupils in urban and rural schools.

The data drew upon responses from children of mixed

gender, mixed ability and varied cultures in two schools.

School A is situated in an urban, densely populated area, with DEIS status, and single stream classes of mixed gender and ethnic diversity, with some speaking English as an additional language.

School B is situated in a rural setting in the county, with multi-grade classes of mixed gender, a greater proportion of middle-class and professional families, relatively little ethnic variation and all children speaking English as a first language.

Methodology

Cases of 12 children in each of two schools were

investigated: 2 children at Junior Infant level, 2 at Third Class level

and 2 at sixth class level in each school. Stories were carefully chosen which were temporally

rich and which belong to a genre that “play with time”, using it non-chronologically as a literary device. In each story, child characters travel in and out of dream time or imaginary time that co-exists with the measured time of the adult world.

Children’s conversations about the time aspects of the stories provided a rich source of data.

Methodology

Multifaceted nature of temporal cognition

Cognitive-developm

ental perspecti

ve

Socio-cultural

perspective

Children's temporalit

y

Children’s narratives about time were analysed from two perspectives:

Cognitive-developmen

tal dimensions

of temporality reflected in children’s

conversations

The emerging nature of the production of

temporal terms

The production of conventional temporal terms

The development of sequential

understanding, temporal order

and a cognition of chronology

The cognition of temporal distance

in the past and temporal location

The relationship between

autobiographical memory and

temporal understanding

The relationship between the

development of temporal

cognition and causal cognition

Awareness and use of

anachronies in time

Understanding parallel time

Ability to engage in temporal updating

A key dimension of the data focussed

on aspects of the children’s conversations which demonstrated how embedded they were in socio-cultural interactions;

The study also examined children’s personal experiences of time;

6 themes emerged in the study.

Sociocultural influences

Theme 1The significance

of family in children’s

interpretation of time

Theme 2The significance

of nature in children’s

interpretation of time

Theme 3The significance

of school in children’s

interpretation of time

Theme 4 The significance

of the immediate

social environment on

children’s interpretation

of time

Theme 5 The significance

of other resources in children’s

interpretation of time

Theme 6 Emotions

triggered by various times

“Anachronies” in time

Analepsis, prolepsis, ellipsis.Context: I: So, what’s happening here in the story? C: He caught the Salmon of Knowledge.

Confirmed the complex, multi-faceted nature

of temporality; Emphatic evidence that young children can

embrace aspects of temporality; Evidence of the developmental nature of

temporality; Key divergences evident in the level of

linguistic competence of the children in both schools as it related to temporality.

Key Findings of Study

Strand 2: Temporality in History Textbooks

(2010)

Study aimed to establish how the history curriculum contributes to children’s temporal

cognition, as mediated by textbooks.Used a content analysis model and developed a

unique rubric, informed by the theories of Krippendorf (1980), Strahan and Herlihy (1985),

Cole (1988) and Downe-Wamboldt (1992).

Temporality in history textboo

ks

Detailed content analysis of

textbooks and workbooks at

three distinct class levels (n=14)

- Junior Infants- Third Class- Sixth Class

Comprehensive review focussing

on -the specific

nature of each of the educational

activities outlined in the texts (n=402);-the level of

cognitive complexity of the activity;

-the potential of each activity for the development

of children’s temporal

cognition.

Determination of whether the centrality of

temporal cognition is

reflected in the textbooks

Most of the texts poorly reflect the principles of

the history curriculum, described by Porter (2004) as the “content standards”, especially as they relate to temporality;

There is a poor fit between the textbooks, the cultural knowledge of the children and their linguistic competence;

Key divergences were evident in the approaches to temporality within each age level, and from one level to another within a series.

Key Findings of Study

None (1%)Very limited (9%)Limited (65%)High potential realised (21%)High potential unrealised (4%)

Provision for temporality and chronology in textbooks at three levels

Provision for temporality - Junior Infant textbooks

No potential (2%)

Very limited potential (20%)

Limited potential (37%)

High potential (29%)

High potential, but un-realised (12%)

Provision for temporality - Third class textbooks

No potential (0%)Very limited potential (12%)Limited potential (57%)High potential realised (27%)High potential unrealised (4%)

Provision for temporality - Sixth class textbooks

No potential (0%)Very limited potential (0%)Limited potential (89%)High potential (11%)High potential unrealised (0%)

Meeting the challenges of a globalised world:

implications of the study findings for future policy

development

Acknowledge and support teachers in recognising and addressing the complex

nature of temporality

A thorough analysis of the implementation of

the history curriculum is long overdue; no such critique has been undertaken in the intervening years since its introduction;

Evaluate the effectiveness of the provision for temporal cognition in the existing history curriculum;

Carefully evaluate the interpretations of curriculum principles by publishers and textbook authors;

Meeting the challenges of a globalised world

The development of children’s linguistic

competence in this area is a basic prerequisite leading to the development of mature historical understanding;

Propose extending the recent audit of language objectives in the Primary School Curriculum (1999) and language goals in Aistear (2009) to take cognisance of the contribution of the history curriculum.

Meeting the challenges of a globalised world