Title map skills in primary geography focusing on the year 4 syllabus

Abstract

For use in everyday life and particularly in the teaching of geography, maps are an invaluable resource. It may be assumed that they are solely used by adults and that map reading may not be accessible to young children. However, recent studies have revealed that in contrast to previous belief and with the appropriate teaching approach, young children are skilful in graphicacy which is the skill of interpreting spatial information. Map skills in general can be subdivided into four properties - plan view, map language, arrangement and proportion. Current pedagogical views in relation to a teaching and learning programme about maps hold the idea that map skills should be introduced separately but ways of relating them to each other should be found. This work attempted to examine the abilities and shortcomings of a particular group of eight year old children in terms of these four map skills. A set of lessons was delivered to gauge the data which was in turn gathered in the form of worksheets. The lessons focused on the map skills separately as well as in conjunction. The findings indicated that children in general are adept at arrangement which includes location, direction and orientation. It would appear from this brief study that some may face difticulties in plan view and scale because 7-8 year olds may still be in the phase of thinking in an egocentric rather than a decentered way. In terms of symbols, they may select a pictograph rather than an ideograph to stand as a symbol for an entity. They may also pretend that maps, which are a selective replication of reality should be extremely close to that reality.