Pre-teenage children's vernacular perception and experience of maps in Hong Kong

Pre-teenage children's vernacular perception and experience of maps in Hong Kong

• Kwan, Tammy Dept. of Curriculum Studies, University of Hong Kong

International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 8(1), 5-25, 1999

Routledge

1999

• G Curriculum, Teaching & Learning: Specific Disciplines
  • GF Humanities & Arts

Map Skills Maps Locational Skills (Social Studies) Children Hong Kong

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Unknown or Unspecified

This paper reports a questionnaire study conducted with a group of 87 pre-teenage children (age 11-12 years) in Hong Kong to show their vernacular perception and experience of maps before they began formal mapwork learning in their first year of secondary education. This study reveals major findings that these pre- teenage children see the main purpose of using maps is to find unfamiliar places and to locate them in most everyday situations. As a result, they like to deal with practical, real maps such as street maps and the MTR (Mass Transit Railway) transport maps where the above- mentioned practical map purpose can be achieved. Most of these pre- teenage children are aware of maps available in their surroundings. However, they may not be observant enough to notice or pay attention to reading them carefully. It is rather a matter of map awareness that puts these pre-teenage children into the two broad groups of map and non-map- users. It also revealed that even those pre-teenage children who claimed to be non- map-users demonstrated some intuitive superficial understanding of simple map concepts and elements. Teachers are strongly encouraged to tap into the intuitions and experiences possessed by pre-teenage children in order to develop their map interest further in geography lessons and to make the understanding of maps a practical life skill for them to master.
[Copyright of International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10382049908667586 ]

• English

Journal Articles

• 10382046

• 10.1080/10382049908667586

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/3463fbc3

2010-09-27