’The main purpose of this study is the examination of the instructional contents and methods of maprelated
education that supports the development of a pupil’s understanding and using of maps. To this
end, the study is organized around two research questions: (1) What kinds of map-related knowledge
and skills should be obtained by a pupil? (2) How can they be structured in the instructions of maprelated
education?
Since Japan’s national standard for elementary school social studies ignores appropriate instructional
structure to introduce map-related knowledge, the pupil seems to be having some difficulty in obtaining
the appropriate skills of understanding and using maps. Robert Gagné, an instructional theorist, argued
that there are five types of intellectual skills: discrimination, concepts, principles, rules and problem
solving. In this study. The author will focus on these intellectual skills to find how they work in the
effective lessons of map-related instruction for a pupil. Using these five intellectual skills as analytical
concepts. The author will examine Simon Catling’s Mapstart, which is a notable work aimed at
developing skills of a pupil’s understanding and using maps, and will detect appropriate instructional
contents and methods in it.
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