How to nurture the ability of students to read and make use of maps has long been a challenge faced by Japan’s elementary and middle schools. To this end, it is necessary to stop thinking of map study as a “nurturing of skills” and deliberately include in map study lessons on “spatial axes” and “recognition of scale,” which are the methodological concepts that form the framework for reading maps. This study considers lesson plans and learning content for improving lessons on the concept of scale by focusing on the recognition of scale and develops a model for such lessons. Scale recognition is a methodological concept that encompasses both cartographic and methodological scales. Reading a map refers to perceiving a space based on the information indicated on the map. Therefore, the creation of map-reading lessons that instill the methodological concept in students requires one to think from the perspective of the formation of human perception. From the findings of cognition science, it is clear that human perception comes into being through the medium of the body. In mapreading lessons, by making the body work as a medium in the broadest sense and making use of not only direct experience but also simulated or virtual experience, experiences from one’s life , and indirect experience, the methodological concept of scale can be more effectively explained. Further, in perceiving spaces through maps, a view from the above is indispensable. Particularly, for students to recognize the scale of a map, it is necessary to move the perspective up and down along the vertical spatial axis. Therefore, in lessons on the concept of scale, both the location of one’s viewpoint and its movement are important factors. When teaching about scale, it is necessary to arrange the lessons so that they logically flow from “generalization” to “scale” to “measurement of distance,” and through the process of moving the students’viewpoint, they will become aware of the differences between and commonalities of the representations on maps. By doing this, along with instilling in the minds of children the two concepts of cartographic scale and methodological scale, which are the elements that comprise the recognition of scale, children can discover and understand the concept of scale by themselves. Further, by using multiple maps of differing scales in lessons and comparing the scale bars, it will be easy for children to understand the concept of scale even if they have not yet learned about similarities and ratios in mathematics.

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