Ebook: Seeking New Horizons: A Perceptual Approach to Geographic Education

Geography is often introduced to schoolchildren by having them look at maps as formal, conventional objects rather than as tools for analysing and communicating ideas about geographic relationships. But how effective is this? Recent research in cartographic communication and map perception suggests that geographic literacy is generally quite low. In Seeking New Horizons, Henry Castner proposes another approach: our focus should shift from maps to the ways in which geographic information -- and the relationships within it -- can be isolated and communicated graphically. With the adoption of a perspective which focuses on the user, children would be encouraged to discover the concepts underlying geographic thinking in its most elemental and natural forms.