Differences in Thematic Map Reading by Students and Their Geography Teacher

Abstract

A school world atlas is likely the first systematic cartographic product which students encounter in their lives. However, only a few empirical studies have analysed school atlases in the context of map reading and learning geographical curricula. The present paper describes an eye-tracking study conducted on 30 grammar school students and their geography teacher. The study explored ten tasks using thematic world maps contained in the Czech school world atlas. Three research questions were posed: (i) Are students able to learn using these particular types of maps? (ii) Have the cartographic visualization methods in the school atlas been adequately selected? (iii) Does the teacher read the maps in the same manner as students? The results proved that the students were sufficiently able to learn using thematic maps. The average correctness of their answers exceeded 70%. However, the results highlighted several types of cartographic visualization methods which students found difficult to read. Most of the difficulties arose from map symbols being poorly legible. The most problematic task was estimating the value of the phenomenon from the symbol size legend. Finally, the difference between the students’ and teacher’s manner of reading maps in each task was analysed qualitatively and then quantitatively by applying two different scanpath comparison methods. The study revealed that the geography teacher applied a different method than her students. She avoided looking at the map legend and solved the task using her knowledge.

The Importance of School World Atlases According to Czech Geography Teachers

“…Work with "thematic maps" was also mentioned 39 times in the answers. Here, teachers most often mentioned that students had problems working with choropleth maps and proportional symbols, which was also found in other Czech studies [28,29]. Students do not like tasks where they are required to find the relationship between different phenomena (25×) and analytical tasks in general (25×).…”

Eye Tracking Research in Cartography: Looking into the Future

“…Moreover, previous years' eye tracking has been used as the main experimental method for the evaluation of the effectiveness of specific types of maps (e.g., [21][22][23]) or different map-based graphical user interfaces (e.g., [24]) working either on typical or smaller (i.e., smartphones) displays [25], under different types of tasks (e.g., [26,27]) and conditions. Substantial contributions have also been presented in the domains of geography map-use education [28,29] and in geovisualization tools' learnability effects [30]. Additionally, recent research studies appearing in the field deal with more theoretical concepts related to the map symbolization process as well as the effectiveness of the fundamental element of map design used either in classic static representations [31] or in modern animated maps [32].…”

Do Different Map Types Support Map Reading Equally? Comparing Choropleth, Graduated Symbols, and Isoline Maps for Map Use Tasks

“…Depending on the purpose of the study, there are two possible solutions. One involves comparing map types that present different input data: for example, when evaluating students' work with both quantitative and qualitative map types [8] and when comparing thematic map readings by students and their geography teacher [17].…”