The World in Spatial Terms: Mapmaking and Map Reading

International Journal of Education (IJE), 2021

The construction of space in children develops gradually, as they grow up and is related both to their environment and to their spatial and/or geographical experiences. According to previous studies, spatial thinking is malleable, and can be developed with the use of appropriate teaching interventions and educational material. Geospatial thinking and reading map skills required to decode map symbols are a relatively new and very interesting topic in kindergarten’s education. Significance of this study is the creation of two large-scale giant maps, laminated, and appropriate to accompany teaching material that can be used in a teaching intervention based on the Greek kindergarten curriculum. The first map (scale of 1:1000) is a map of the city of Mytilene, and the second one (scale of 1:20000) is of the island of Lesvos; both have dimensions 3X4 meters. The purpose of this study is to present the creation of spatial teaching material, so that map skills in Kindergarten education can ...

ilt.columbia.edu

1953

The paper presents a project on the use of maps in the kindergarten. Twenty-four children (4 to 6 years old) from three nursery schools in a rural area in central Greece participated in the program, which aimed at initiating them into the cartographic knowledge through the understanding and production of maps. Furthermore, the project aimed to promote the children’s decoding skills in order for them to develop visual literacy which appears to be a necessity in today’s pictorial world. Data about the preschoolers’ cartographic knowledge prior to the program was gathered through personal interviews based on a semi-structured questionnaire. The same method was used for the final assessment of the program. Discourse analysis was conducted using electronic data gathered from the questionnaire in order to explore the children’s comprehension of maps prior to and after the completion of the program. Additionally, the entire procedure was evaluated by appropriately designed observation sheets. A variety of activities with electronic and printed maps was designed to help the children reorganize their beliefs and expand their ideas and representations about maps as a means of communication. They were trained in the proper use of maps, meaning that they were familiarized with reading and interpreting visual information presented in symbolic form on maps. The project was integrated into the weekly program of the kindergartens for a four month period and was implemented by cross-thematic, collaborative activities of a constructivist approach. The results indicate that maps should be incorporated into the early childhood curriculum as a source of visual information and that preschool children are capable of reading and producing maps provided that they have been adequately trained in their use.

The Geography Teacher, 2018

2005

Cartographic research has reported that early elementary school children have shown advanced mapping behaviors in reading positional, locational and wayfinding information using large scale maps. More recent studies revealed that Grade 2 students understand the map as a representation of space and can be exposed to more advanced cartographic means, such as thematic maps. The idea of designing thematic maps and using them as teaching aids, even in early school years, sounds interesting and challenging. But, are the cartographers ready to design such maps? Do they know young children's needs, attitudes, and more over, their feelings about mapping? We believe that cartographers have to follow careful steps before designing maps for children of such a young age, since these maps will introduce these children to mapping activities and probably affect their future attitudes towards maps. Among the very first concerns of the map designer must be the method used to symbolize geographica...

2005

In the New Zealand National Curriculum maps are defined as an essential skill along with graphs and tables. Despite the widespread use of maps in everyday life and their incorporation in more than one area of the curriculum there has been little research in New Zealand on children’s knowledge of maps, their use and where and how children encounter them. The research reported in this thesis is an attempt to broaden our understanding of young school children’s knowledge of maps and in particular the sources of their map knowledge in family, neighbourhood and school. The study was informed by two bodies of work, that of Fay Panckhurst on preschoolers’ map knowledge and its sources, and the NEMP studies which assessed graphs, tables and maps at Years 4 and 8. From a Decile 2 school, a sample of Year 3 & 4 children was selected before they had been introduced to maps at school. The students were interviews individually. Each was asked to select the maps from a collection, which included ...

South Florida Journal of Development, 2021

This work aims to show the feasibility of introducing basic cartographic concepts in the first year of high school, with simple resources, contributing to the process of knowledge construction by the young person himself by stimulating his curiosity. For this, a theoretical study was made on the theme presented here, then activities were given in the classroom and, later, the diagnosis and debate of the results obtained were carried out. Cartographic literacy, demonstrated in these activities, predisposes the student to work his competence in this form of language, qualifying him/her to make multiple readings of the world through the most disparate cartographic representations possible. Thus, after the didactic sequence used in mediation with the students, in addition to encouraging the reading of maps, the subjects also had the opportunity to create their own fantasy maps. The work was based on David Ausubel's Theory of Significant Learning and the parameters present also in Lev Vygotsky's Historical-Cultural Theory and Henri Wallon's Theory of Development were also used.

Proceedings of the First Indonesian Communication Forum of Teacher Training and Education Faculty Leaders International Conference on Education 2017 (ICE 2017), 2018

Map is required many disciplines to present information. Various professions and occupations require maps to support their activities. Social Studies as the first subject in schools has a great responsibility to teach and build map literacy. Presenting map as an alternative media and learning resources and developing it into a learning model are strategic efforts to realize a powerful Social Studies learning. A concept from the United States which is adequate in affecting curriculum of the latest social studies education prevailing in Indonesia today. social studies are the first subject to introduce map in school, has a great responsibility to teach and build map literacy. This article aims to identify maps usage in Indonesia secondary school IPS lessons. It would reveal teachers perception on assumption that IPS will be powered by the application of map literacy in learning. Research result exhibits that the utilization of map has not been optimal because the map is still limited as a medium to merely present a location. The majority of teachers are very confident that by utilizing maps in social studies learning would make social studies meaningful, challenging, value-based, integrative and active (powerful). These results ultimately suggest that map literacy is a necessity for learners in Indonesia and teachers are very supportive for the development for a model of learning-based literacy map that is able to realize a powerful IPS learning.