School Students' Mental Representations of Thematic Point Symbol Maps

Abstract

Small-scale thematic maps that use point symbols to show the location of economic activity are a common feature of school atlases. They have, however, undergone a considerable amount of generalization in their preparation and we know little about how school students make meaning from them. Using a simple software mapping tool, 50 pairs of school students, aged 11–14 years, were invited to make a map involving point symbol generalization in order to identify their mental representations of this type of thematic map. Using procedural 'schema' diagrams, some common misconceptions are identified.