The Mathematical Issues
The following are mathematical issues and misconceptions that arise with students in relation to understanding the concepts of time.
- Some students may have poor numeration skills. Therefore adding and subtracting time intervals becomes difficult. Students need sound numeration knowledge and skills in addition and subtraction when calculating time and telling the time (Booker, Bond, Sparrow and Swan, 2010).
- Students become confused when they see that there is no zero o'clock and no 60 minute label on a clock. Harris (2008) states that when labelling time there is no reference to zero hour and no 60 minute position on clocks.
- Students are confused between an analogue clock and a digital clock and the different interpretations of the same time. Booker, Bond, Sparrow and Swan (2010) suggest that another issue with telling the time is the different ways in which it is stated. For example a digital clock shows the time as 5:15 and is referred to as " a quarter past five".
- Reading the time from a clock face is difficult as it has more than one part to it such as a second hand, an hour hand and a minute hand. students sometimes read the hands wrongly. For example the hour hand is mistaken for the minute hand which is then interpreted as the wrong time. Booker (2011) suggests that time is quite complex and has a range of bases as it is not metric.
- Students see times for race records to the hundredths of seconds which is very confusing. Seeing time displayed in hundredths of seconds is confusing to young students as they are taught that there is 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour (Booker, 2011).
- Students are confused with the measure of time. For example, there is 60 seconds in one minute, or there is 60 minutes in one hour. Students become confused with 12 hours being a time cycle for half a day and 24 hours being the time cycle for a complete day. Furthermore students are then confronted with the task of telling time "past" or "to" the hour. Time is complicated when the time digit is referred to as minutes past or minutes to the hour (Booker, Bond, Sparrow and Swan, 2010).
- Students experience difficulty with time concepts. Confusion arises when students often hear terms such as "wait a minute" and "wasting time" or "saving time". Students become confused especially when they are waiting longer than a minute or the minute is not timed. Booker, Bond, Sparrow and Swan (2010) claim that these common expressions confuse time understanding for students.
- Pace (2004, as cited in Harris, 2008) suggests that teaching difficulties can arise when teachers realise that clock faces that can be manipulated, and poorly written tasks may not be enough for developing children's understanding of the concept of time. To understand the concept of time, it is paramount for students to "make connections between mathematics and realistic situations" which comes from experience of such situations.