The purpose of this research is to find out the effect of map-making activities on young children's abilities to use spatial coordinates and representation of geographical spatial relationship in map-drawing.
To accomplish the propose, the following ...
The purpose of this research is to find out the effect of map-making activities on young children's abilities to use spatial coordinates and representation of geographical spatial relationship in map-drawing.
To accomplish the propose, the following research questions have proposed:
1. What kind of influence map-making activities have on children's abilities to use spatial coordinates?
1-1. What kind of influence map-making activities have on the children's ability to locate a point on the coordinate plane?
1-2. What kind of influence map-making activities have on the children's ability to read the coordinate numbers?
2. Will map-making activities have influence on representation of geographical spatial relationship in map-drawing of children?
2-1. Will map-making activities have influence on the types of map-drawing of young children in map-drawings?
2-2. Will map-making activities have influence on geographical representation of young children in map-drawings?
42 subjects of this study were five-year-old children attending S kindergarten which is located in Busan. 21 children(13 boys and 8 girls) were assigned to the experimental group, while 21 children(12 boys and 9 girls) were assigned to the control group. These group had a difference of spatial ability statically.
The tests used for this study were as follows:
The test of spatial ability was constructed by Hong's(2001c) ‘The measurement tool on young children spatial ability'. The test of the children's abilities to locate a point on the coordinate plane and to read the coordinate numbers were conducted on tasks by Blades and Spencer(1989) then revised through pilot test by Kwon(2004). The analysis of children's map-drawing were employed 'The instrument for classification of children's map-drawing' devised by Hong, Kim, and Jung(2007), and 'The instrument for analysis of geographical representation of children's map-drawing' also devised by Hong, Kim, and Jung(2007) on the basis of previous studies and the idea of Hyun(2001), Ahn(2002), Hong(2004), and 'the appropriate of map skill for young children' in the geography curriculum of United Kingdom.
Data obtained from this study were analysed with following methods.
First, data were analysed with ANCOVA on the difference of score from pre- and post-test with being controled the score of spatial ability in order to find out differences of young children's ability to use spatial coordinates between the experimental and the control group.
Second, data were analysed with frequency and percentage on the types of map-drawing of children collected at the first and last of the study in order to find out the tendency of the type of map-drawing of children, and were analysed also these map-drawings on the basis of the factor of geographical representation in order to find out the tendency of geographical representation in the map-drawings of children.
To process those data, SPSS for Windows 13.0 program were employed.
The results of this research are as follows :
First, the results of the test show that the map-making activities actually had a positive influence on children's ability to use spatial coordinates. The experimental group which was treated showed higher scores in ability to locate a point on the coordinate plane than the control group which was not treated. And the case of ability to read the coordinate numbers, The experimental group showed higher scores than the control group, too.
According to the significant difference of young children' abilities to locate a point on the coordinate place and read the coordinate numbers between the experimental and control group, map-making activities had positive influence on young children ability to use spatial coordinates.
Second, the results of the analysis of the children's map-drawings show that a influence on representation of geographical spatial relationship in map-drawing of children. The experimental group have more growing tendency from the type of drawing expressing to the type of drawing-map mixed expression and map expression than the control group. Besides, the case of analysis of geographical representation of children in map-drawing, the experimental group shaw much change in map-drawing expression for location/direction, relation, view, environment and symbol at the end of the study than the control group.
According to the results which show that map-making activities had a positive influence on representation of geographical spatial relationship in map-drawing of children.