The Imaginary Environment of “Community” and Map Learning in Social Studies

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to make clear a structure of the imaginary environment of “community” in children's mind and develop a new curriculum of map learning in social studies of primary school. As a study area, the author chose Yamana elementary school district. This school district consists in rural area in Fukuroi city, which is in the western part of Shizuoka Prefecture. The main results are summarized as follows:
1) Each child have expanding his mental map of “community” on an imaginary environment before they study map learning.
2) An imaginary enviroment of “community” in children's mind consist of their known streets and places. Each child draw some places where they interest on their free-hand sketch-map. Each child know some names of the places and some landscapes where they interest. Many of the children have interested, some parks, shopping centers and streets ever been.
3) The maps use for map-learning classes in social studies must consist of some streets and places familiar to children.
4) It is necessary to consist of exploration in the map learning.
5) Now in Japan, teachers should pay more attention to a structure of imaginary environment in children's mind.