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:
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