Abstract
The research is about the construction of conventional time through the appropriation of different tools used to locate events in time by 200 children between the ages of 4 to 10 years old. Temporal locations are examined through an interview task and the children’s ability to construct order of different temporal frameworks (daily, weekly, yearly) is studied using a card arrangement task. The same children took part in these two tasks.
The results show that the tools children use to locate events in time change with their age and school experience: the youngest use relative locations or scripts (events are used as tools to locate other events) whereas older children use absolute locations (hours, days, months then become tools for locating events in time). Moreover, children use conventional temporal tools to locate events before being able to use them to put different events into the same temporal sequence. The study highlights developmental phases between the use of temporal locations and the construction of their meanings.
Résumé
Notre recherche porte sur 200 enfants âgés de 4 à 10 ans et s’intéresse à la construction du temps conventionnel en référence à l’appropriation de divers outils de localisations temporelles. La capacité à localiser des événements dans le temps est étudiée au cours d’un entretien et la capacité à ordonner des événements entre eux pour reconstruire divers cadres temporels (quotidien, hebdomadaire, et annuel) est étudiée lors d’une tâche d’arrangements d’images. Les mêmes enfants participent à ces deux épreuves. Les résultats montrent que les outils utilisés par l’enfant pour localiser les événements dans le temps changent avec l’expérience scolaire: l’enfant utilise tout d’abord des localisations relatives (des événements lui servent alors de moyens de repères) puis des localisations conventionnelles (les jours, les heures deviennent alors des outils de repérage). De plus, l’enfant utilise des outils de localisations temporelles avant de pouvoir ordonner différents événements d’une même série temporelle. Ces résultats montrent différentes étapes développementales entre l’utilisation de localisations temporelles et la construction de leurs significations.
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Tartas, V. The development of systems of conventional time: A study of the appropriation of temporal locations by four-to-ten-year old children. Eur J Psychol Educ 16, 197–208 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173025
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173025