Contenu du sommaire : Représentations spatiales et pratiques pédagogiques de la géographie

The question of social representation is one of the most important for the didactics of geography. Social representations, which are both a product and a process, play an important role in teaching and learning ; but they are not easily understood. In the first instance they represent a concept which allows sense to be given to collected materials, particularly to students' statements. The analysis of the interviews of pupils at primary and lower secondary school level about towns enables representations to be reconstructed. We have tried to go beyond the simple description of the object to point out some learning issues dealing specifically with the construction of the geographical space concept.

Research into pupils' representations is an accepted practice in the teaching of geography. The present example relates to the representations of cities and industries by children in primary schools. It is often more difficult than imagined to devise and use a questionnaire to bring out representations. The results are also hard to interpret. Only a small part of the pupils' representations are in fact obtained and they are often distorted, leading to the conclusion that is difficult to use them in the didactics of geography.

ABSTRACT : The spatial representations of individuals and societies should not be seen as approximations or evidence of elementary knowledge compared with validated scientific knowledge. On the contrary, they represent a system of knowledge on the basis of which decisions with spatial implications will be taken. This is where the various processes of the occupation and of space - geography ! - stem from. Hence does not the teaching of geography amount to making students think, as well as to discovering and manipulating one's own representations as well as those of other people ?

In secondary schools, for various reasons, teachers' thinking on geography and the manner in which it is taught is inadequate. At best exchanges between epistemologie and didactic ideas gravitate around fashionable concepts. The questionnaires which are proposed here represent a basis for debate about geography and its teaching in schools, organised around successive questions on perceptions, methods, common meanings and customs.

Teachers often assert that landscape descriptions by pupils in French secondary schools are poor, with many trifling details and uncoordinated elements. Such comments may be qualified by two surveys. They show that landscape descriptions are more coherent than imagined and provide evidence of individual strategies of analysis. The questions which they provoke are generally relevant to the subject but of an nature.

A map key is used as an aid to go through a list of questions about a specific geographical space (a particular residential district) in order to generalise about all such spaces.

Commenting on documents is one of the most frequently used exercises in practical classes at University. It also forms part of the competitive examinations used to recruit teachers. Due to the vast increase in the range of geographical documents, related didactic approaches also need revising. A well-argued and critical approach to problem solving will ensure that the greatest number succeed in developing a sound reasoning about spatial issues.

The gap is increasing between the use of maps at school and their professional and social uses. In order to reduce it, this short analysis proposes a clarification of the types and teaching levels of maps as well as a pedagogical progression to facilitate their use by eleven- year-old to eighteen-year-old students.