This study aimed to examine preschool children’s epistemological views in the context of the concept of time via their drawings of the time machine. The study was conducted with 30 five-year-old children (17 girls and 13 boys) attending state and private preschools in the academic year 2018/2019. The data collection tools used in the study were the Test for Creative Thinking - Drawing Production TCT-DP, Children’s Thoughts on Time Questionnaire (CTTQ) and Children’s Epistemological Views Questionnaire (CEVQ). Of the mixed methods typologies, the fully mixed sequential dominant status-qualitative design was employed. The results obtained from the study indicated that the time machine drawings of almost half the participating children included creative elements and logical thinking products. In addition, 40% of the children’s responses reflected sophisticated epistemological views such as scientific, imaginative/science fiction-based, divergent and eccentric approaches and non-authority figures regarding the concept of time. In conclusion: contrary to Piegatian interpretation, our results show that five-year old children can demonstrate abstract scientific understanding regarding the concept of time and preschoolers’ epistemic approach has a critical role in determining their development of abstract cognitive concepts.

这项研究的目的是通过时间机器的图纸在时间概念的背景下检验学龄前儿童的认识论观点。该研究是在2018/2019学年对30名五岁儿童（17名女孩和13名男孩）进行的州立和私立幼儿园教育的。该研究中使用的数据收集工具是“创造性思维测验-图画制作TCT-DP”，“儿童时间观问卷”（CTTQ）和“儿童认识论观”问卷（CEVQ）。在混合方法类型中，采用了完全混合的顺序主导状态-定性设计。从研究中获得的结果表明，将近一半的参与活动的孩子的时间机器图纸包括创意元素和逻辑思维产品。此外，儿童的回答中有40％反映了复杂的认识论观点，例如科学的，基于想象的/科幻的，分歧和古怪的方法以及关于时间概念的非权威人物。结论：与Piegatian解释相反，我们的结果表明，五岁的孩子可以表现出对时间概念的抽象科学理解，而学龄前儿童的认知方法在决定其抽象认知概念的发展中起着至关重要的作用。