Teaching Cartographical Skills in Different Educational Systems of EU - Maps for the Future Children Education and Internet - page 50

• In England the teachers can decide lesson number, but the theme should be

tailored to the curriculum.

In some countries the theory and related knowledge acquisition is important, but
less attention is paid to practical cognition. Such are the countries in Central and
Eastern Europe, e.g. Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, which have a so-
called traditional way of science teaching. However, the Anglo-Saxon and Nordic
countries have a major role in the experiments and practical tasks. In the latter
countries, science or integrated science courses appear in general (TIMSS 2007 ).
In every country: the preparation of educational content, the use of different
teaching methods and forms, different types of student work (individual work,
testing, pair and group work, discussion, field work, project, presentations, essays,
posters, projects, presentations) is important. Furthermore, it is important to con-
nect geographical knowledge to other subjects.
In the 1990s, Geography, as a subject, began to be independent. It is an
integrated subject in primary education in most cases and later it is an independent
subject in the curriculum (e.g. the situation of the geography depends on the type of
the upper secondary school). It is an independent subject in Austria, Slovenia,
Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany and Great Britain. In some
countries, geographical knowledge is part of social sciences (Germany, Sweden) or
natural sciences (Finland), or both (e.g., Slovenia, Great Britain, Austria, Ireland,
the Netherlands, Hungary). Therefore often not the specialized teachers educate the
geographical knowledge and they pay less attention to geography. In some
countries geographic knowledge is taught with other topics at some educational
levels (Curi ´ et al. 2007 ), e.g.

• In Austria with economics in the lower and upper secondary level,

• In France and Ireland with history at the upper secondary level,

• In Finland with biology at the lower secondary level,

• In Sweden it is included in the social sciences like history, religion and society.

4.3.2 Cartographical Themes in the Curriculum

Cartography is “the art, science and technology of making maps, together with their
study as scientific documents and works of art” (Neumann 1997 ,p.29). Cartography
in schools , as a section of cartography, deals with making maps or map-like represen-
tation for school purpose and forming the criteria and the base of didactic-methodical
use (Bollmann and Koch 2002 ). School cartography is map-making for school use
(Neumann 1997 ) and includes not only the cartographical skills but also the use of
maps and map reading and the topographic knowledge. The aim of topographic
education is not collecting pieces of information, but developing ability and indepen-
dent search and arranging knowledge. The topographic fundamentals, location,
explanation of places, attaching geographic knowledge are also important.