Gender differences in children's wayfinding

ABSTRACT

Gender differences in spatial ability are widely acknowledged, but research to date is equivocal on gender differences in wayfinding ability of children. Indeed, the precise nature of the relationship between gender and wayfinding needs further exploration, especially within real-world outdoor environments. There is a need for more research on this topic, not least to better understand the implications of gender differences in wayfinding for facilitation of our educational programs. This article focuses on this issue by seeking to explore children's map understanding and map use in relation to gender in a large-scale outdoor environment. Ninety-seven children, 3–13 years old, were presented with a pictorial map with 7 controls which they had to locate in any order. Measure of accuracy in wayfinding (number of correctly identified controls) indicate small gender differences. However, measure of efficiency in wayfinding (time spent on the task) indicate that boys outperform girls.

RÉSUMÉ

L'impact de la différence de genre sur les capacités spatiales sont très connues, mais la recherche est aujourd'hui ambiguë sur l'impact du genre sur la capacité des enfants à se diriger. En effet, la nature précise du lien entre le genre et l'orientation n'est pas suffisamment étudiée, en particulier dans le cas de l'environnement extérieur à grande échelle. Il est nécessaire de poursuivre des recherches sur ce sujet, notamment pour mieux comprendre les implications des différences de genre sur l'orientation pour améliorer nos programmes éducatifs. Cet article se concentre sur cette question en cherchant à explorer la compréhension et l'usage de cartes par des enfants en fonction de leur sexe dans un environnement extérieur grande échelle. 97 enfants de 3 à 13 ans ont reçu une carte pictorale contenant 7 points de contrôle qu'ils devaient localiser sur le terrain dans n'importe quel ordre. Les mesures de précision dans l'orientation (le nombre de points correctement identifiés) montrent une petite différence de genre. Toutefois, les mesures d'efficacité de l'orientation (le temps passé sur une tâche) montrent que les garçons sont plus performants que les filles.

KEYWORDS:

• Wayfinding
• gender differences
• pictorial maps
• outdoor setting

Acknowledgements

The authors express their sincere thanks to Professor Gudbrand Lien for his help with the statistical analyzing of the data; Professor Miranda Thurston for insightful comments on earlier versions on this manuscript; and the participating children for their time and enthusiasm. This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Thorsteinn Sigurjónsson, an Associate Professor of Sport and Physical Education, writes on children and navigational wayfinding, sport and mathematics education in the early years. His recent article is “Wayfinding by Means of Maps in Real-world Settings: A Critical Review” (Journal of Navigation, 2016) and recent book are “Sport in Scandinavia and the Nordic countries” (Routledge, 2019), and book chapter “Young Children's Cross-Domain Mapping of Numerosity in Path Navigation” (Springer, 2020).

Trine Bjerva, a Senior Lecturer of Sport and Physical Education, writes on children and navigational wayfinding. Her recent article is “Wayfinding by Means of Maps in Real-world Settings: A Critical Review” (Journal of Navigation, 2016).

Jon Anders Græsli, a Senior Lecturer of Sport and Physical Education, writes on children and navigational wayfinding. The latest article is “Children's communication with different types of map - a progressive approach to map-reading” (Acta Didactica, 2011).

Notes

1 The ability to rotate a two or three dimensional figure rapidly and accurately (Shepard & Cooper, 1982).

2 A symbolic plan map is an artificial construction on which an interpretation can be performed, but only by understanding or accepting the conventions, which underlie it. Landmarks, for example a stone, are reproduced as symbols on the map, and a prerequisite for interpreting these symbols is to understand that the same symbol can represent only one type of landmark (Keates, 1996).

3 Perceives that the map conveys a sequential message that can be easily decoded and the task is conceived of as directly (absolutely) defined on the map. Then the task can be done in a particular order almost regardless of where it is performed (Ottosson, 1987a).

4 Understands that the identity or the features on the map depend upon their relative positions (Ottosson, 1987a).

5 Points in the environment that must be located is known as ’controls’ (Eccles et al., 2002). A control is marked on a map with a circle around the specific point, and the specific point shall be exactly centered in the middle of the circle. In the terrain, a control is marked with a white and orange flag. The flag should be easily visible and not hidden away.

6 In the study we used Emit, which is mainly used as electronic timing system in Norway. The registration units (e-Post) was placed on the start/finish, and in addition on every control (see Emit hompage http://emit.no/en/product/ver5-e-card-389).

7 Each child had an electronic chip (e-Card) to record time and place. See Emit homepage http://emit.no/en/product/epost-380.