A comparative study of the map content included in junior high school world geography textbooks and school atlases in United States of America and Korea.

摘要

The objectives of this study are to compare the map content of junior high school world geography textbooks and school atlases and to analyze the scope of each text and atlas. Five textbooks and five atlases from the United States, and two textbooks and five atlases from Korea are studied.;The five topical categories; Location, Place, Relationship within Places, Movement, and Regions were developed from other research. These topical categories are based upon the five fundamental themes of geography. In the content analysis, seven analytical categories were used: number and percentage of pages contained in this study; frequency and percentage of maps in type of illustration; composition of content in world geography textbooks and atlases; composition of maps in world geography textbooks and atlases; inclusion or omission of specific points in each topical category; analysis of specific points in regional category; analysis of the Evaluation Coefficient (ECO) about each textbook and atlas. The texts and atlases were analyzed by quantitative, qualitative, and ECO analysis.;The results of this study indicate that the American textbook is superior in providing basic geographic information of map content in terms of coverage of topical categories, while the Korean atlases contain more map content in topical categories. However, the Korean world geography textbooks and atlases should distribute information more evenly.;The findings of this study have relevance to geography textbook and atlas writers and publishers, and geography educators. Korean geography educators need to reconsider the following: is the number and percentage of maps appropriate when compared to other illustration types and other countries' texts; what kinds of maps are used properly according to the content of textbook; what geographic information is covered as the map content; how are the best quality textbooks and atlases in other countries composed. This study will provide a knowledge base which may be useful in improving the quality of map content of Korean geography textbooks and atlases.