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
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