COMO ADOLESCENTES PERCEBEM GEOGRAFICAMENTE O ESPAÇO ATRAVÉS DE PRÉ-MAPAS E MAPAS

Resumen

Geographical perception of spce throug pre-maps and maps, by adolescents. The main aim of the study was to find an explanation of spatial perception based on Piaget's theory. The hypotheses were that adolescents through the use of pre-maps and maps: 1. perceive and estabilish in a different way the topological and Euclidean spatial relationships; 2. geographically, they perceive and represent the space in a different manner, and; 3. geographically, they relate and represent in a differeent manner the spatial elements. The study included a familiar geographical setting (the city of Rio Claro, stete of São Paulo), place of residence of the students, and an unfamiliar setting (the city of Araras, also in the state of São Paulo). The total sample of 32 subjects comprised 14 boys and 18 hirls form 13 to 18 years of age attending the 7th grade of a public school in Rio Claro, during 1975. Two groups of 16, each with seven boys and nine girls randomly selected formed an experimental and control group. The results confirmed the hypotheses. The data was treated with the Wilcoxon teste to verify the first and second hypotheses: the sesults were statistically significant for the students on the experimental group and no significant for the control group. The data was subjacted to the Kruskall Wallis test to verify the third hypothesis; significant results were observed for the two cities, These results demonstrated that pre-maps and maps facilitate the development of perceptive activities in Geography, and are consistent with Piaget's argument that spatial relations can be learnt. The authors present some suggestions to be used by geography teachers at the classroom level.