Graphicacy Revisited: mapping abilities and gender differences

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Abstract
A review of research carried out during the past decade indicates that the map‐drawing and map‐using abilities of young children had previously been underestimated. Experiments have shown that primary school children are able to draw from memory simple sketch‐maps of the area around their home and to recognise features on aerial photographs and large‐scale plans of the same area. Research undertaken with secondary school pupils has provided a greater understanding of the difficulties they experience in understanding contour patterns as representations of relief, and in correlating Ordnance Survey maps with aerial photographs. Among younger children there is little difference between the mapping abilities of boys and girls, but, as they grow older, boys consistently perform better than girls of the same age in map‐drawing and map‐reading tasks.