"Back When God Was around and Everything": Elementary Children's Understanding of Historical Time

Children's ideas about fossils and foundational concepts related to fossils

“…Piaget () concluded that children's understandings of succession of events and different durations of time did not develop until his concrete operations stage at age 7–11, but other researchers found that even preschoolers can understand durations of time when not distracted by interfering cues (Levin, ). Research investigating children's understanding of both historical and geologic time shows that children develop their concept of time over a long period of development, by understanding relative time long before understanding absolute time (Barton & Levstik, ; Dodick & Orion, ; Thornton & Vukelich, ).…”

“…In a study of children's understanding of historical time, Barton and Levstik () found that children aged 5–8 are able to distinguish between historical events that happened long ago and more recently. In fact, some kindergarteners and all second graders differentiated between the relative timing of different events, even beyond “old” and “recent” categories.…”

“…Compared to relative time, absolute time is much less accessible to children. Children aged 5–8 rarely use dates when discussing pictures showing the historical past and generally guessed when asked to produce such dates (Barton & Levstik, ). By fourth grade (age 9), children were much better at determining dates of pictured events (Barton & Levstik, ).…”

“…Children aged 5–8 rarely use dates when discussing pictures showing the historical past and generally guessed when asked to produce such dates (Barton & Levstik, ). By fourth grade (age 9), children were much better at determining dates of pictured events (Barton & Levstik, ). Consequently, Thornton and Vukelich () recommend that history instruction not include dates before age 9.…”

“…Young children seem to have a sense that living things have a past and future, even as they are not always understanding the concept of irreversibility and death (Labrell & Stefaniak, ). Absolute ages of fossils are difficult for young children to understand (Barton & Levstik, ; Thornton & Vukelich, ; Trend, ), and their estimates of absolute ages are often guesses given their limited understandings of large numbers.…”