Learning the space. The change of spatial cognition of a city centre by high-school students in the light of mental maps and sketches

Abstract

Gaining knowledge is a lifelong process. Humans tend to learn new things entire life, especially in recent, technologically-demanding times. This process is contradicted by lowered learning potential with aging and is often economic-dependant too, so the digital divide is a serious, growing problem. The fact of learning and gaining new thing can be easily transposed to cognition, including space cognition as people learn space. Beside formal education with maps, atlases and GIS, one learns by experience and interaction with that space. Education can be seen as a duty and to some it may be unpleasant. Gaining knowledge about the environment by simply using it, exploring, and living in it is trouble-free – it is not to be tested like the formal knowledge is expected to be. One can benefit only by gain extra skills in space-perception and orienteering. These skills are pretty useful while a bit diminishing recently due to global positioning and location based digital services which offer a ready-to-use solutions and answers without experiencing spatial-problem solving processes. This paper tries to explore the process of learning a new place and finding evidences of it and ways to present it. The case study deals with high-school students coming to schools in the city of Lublin from outside it (not living there). It is expected their knowledge changes (increases) during the whole education process – from the first to the third class. The method used to test students’ knowledge is drawing mental sketches, analysing and translating them into GIS environment to visualise and explore.