The spatial thinking in Pre-primary Education: a relation between Cartography and Geography
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1Juliasz, P.C.S.; 2Castellar, S.M.V.
1UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO - USP Email: paula_csj@hotmail.com
2UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO - USP Email: smvc@usp.br
Abstract
The cultural context underpins the development of spatial thinking and the space-time relationship; i.e., the representation of space. Understanding childhood as a historical and social construction and the conception of the child as subject and protagonist is the basis for the investigation of how the children develop the space and time relationship from their actions and language. Therefore, teaching activities which relate the personal knowledge, the one brought to school by the child with the scientific knowledge are fundamental to the social and cognitive development of the children. Pre-primary Education plays this role, consisting in the first stage of the Brazilian Basic Education, according to the Law of National Education Guidelines and Bases. We understand that the space-time reasoning starts in childhood, within the social groups, which allows us to infer that the cartography genesis is in pre-primary education. In this study, the cartographic language is understood as the one which concretizes the spatial thinking through the acts of drawing, making, gestures or pasting pictures. This study has the objective to present considerations about the cartographic language in pre-primary education as the first approach toward the geographical knowledge through teaching activities for children aged 4-5 in a public school in the state of Sao Paulo and about our research on space and time in pre-primary education, a doctorate reseach project, entitled "The space-time relationship and school cartography in childhood" (this research is funded from The State of São Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP). The teaching activities which guided our reflections were planned using elements from the children’s universe, such as books and animations and were documented through recordings, photographs and field notes. These materials and the children’s productions provided us with relevant data to analyze how the children establish the space and time relationships in their graphic representation of space. To conduct our research we drew on theories about children’s development and on the studies by Liliane Lurçat and Jean Le Boulch about the role of the corporeal schema on the spatial and temporal acquisition. The cultural-historical theory by Vigotski allowed us to understand the function of the memory, the imagination, the toys and the language during the activities. This analysis showed us the need of an integrated curriculum, thinking about pre-primary education as part of Basic Education, which in turn precedes Fundamental Education, a stage in which Geography is present. Several books and articles about school Cartography have been published over the last decades, approaching different themes: the representation of space in different cultural contexts; cartography knowledge and teacher formation; teaching practice involving information technology and communication, among others. These publications address Geography teaching at school; however, few of them bring studies or experiences regarding pre-primary education. This represents a pedagogic gap when we consider the school curriculum, mainly after the nine-year system has been stablished, a still non defined fusion between the end of pre-primary education and the beginning of fundamental education. The lack of technical and practical support for this segment of Basic Education may cause the practices destined to older students to shift to pre-primary groups, aiming to prepare these students for the first grade of Fundamental Education. Thus, these considerations guided our studies, providing elements for the establishment of methodological and theoretical references for a school cartography that is truly pertinent to this stage of Basic Education.