General approaches to the cartographic culture formation in the physical-geographic courses of school geography

Abstract

The article considers the main stages of the cartographic culture formation in the school geography course. The concept of “cartographic culture” is clarified. The four basic conditional stages can be defined while observing the formation of cartographic culture in the school course of geography. They involve the general acquaintance with the map and the basics of working with it, the formation of the skills of analysis and comparison of thematic maps, the enhancing of analytical cartographic skills, the development of the ability to predict possible variants of the course of geographical processes on the basis of maps.The article focuses on the methodical approaches to the use of cartographic materials in grades 6-8, where physical and geographic courses are studied. In the 6th grade, in the “General Geography” course, there is a purposeful systematic formation of initial knowledge about a map and the ability to work with it. These skills are fixed due to the fact that cartographic materials begin to be used during the study of almost every topic. In the 7th grade, while studying the “Continents and Oceans” course, consolidation and further development of students' general skills in reading and working with a map continues. The new approach in the 7th grade geography concerns the formation of the ability to analyze and compare thematic maps to obtain new information, establish relationships between the components of nature, and determine the features of natural phenomena and territory complexes. In the 8th grade while doing the course “Ukraine in the world: nature, population”, students should acquire new skills for working with topographic maps, understand the peculiarities of using maps to solve tasks for determining the local time and zone time, continue developing skills in analyzing and comparing thematic maps to identify cause-and-effect relationships of the components of nature between themselves and with social phenomena, as well as for the performance of creative and research tasks.