The usability of economic maps for students of various age groups: an example for a discussion of a multi-stage concept of teaching aids

Problem-solving procedures in spatially explicit tasks: comparing procedures with printed and digital cartographic documents

“…Unfortunately, many research methods cannot very well and objectively identify how users of these cartographic products interact with or use school atlases (cf. Wiegand 1998;Blades et al 1998;Trahorsch et al 2020;Michaelidou et al 2004, 2007 andothers). In the past, traditional research methods such as interviews, didactic tests, questionnaires, observations, or methods originally based on other fields of science, such as the method of mental mapping (Bláha & Pastuchová-Nováková 2013), have very often been applied.…”

“…One of the traditional cartographic tools that influence the perception of space and the development of geographical literacy is the (school) atlas. This didactic tool is very often referred to as the first comprehensive cartographic work with which an individual comes into contact and through which he or she forms geographical knowledge and perception of space (Trahorsch et al 2020;Wiegand 2002). However, it is not only pupils who are users of this cartographic product; university students are also one of the key users, as are geography teachers.…”

“…In what follows, we will only focus on the relationship between student and teacher characteristics in schooling as this is the focus of the study. A key characteristic of users playing a role in map use is their cognitive level, whether conditioned by age or experience (Alhosan & Yagoub 2015;Blades et al 1998;Hanus & Marada 2016) We can give an example related specifically to school atlases; Trahorsch et al (2020) found that some cartographic features cannot be understood by primary school students because their abbreviations, e.g. the abbreviations of chemical elements used in these signs have not yet been taught in the classroom; on the contrary, teachers, as other users of these products, appreciate the abbreviations of chemical elements in the signs of mineral extraction for their clarity; this result shows the different requirements of pupils as objects of learning and teachers as facilitators of this process.…”