Young children's understanding of nested hierarchies of place relationships

Abstract

The National Curriculum for England and Wales now requires that by the end of Key Stage 1 (i.e. 7 years old), children should be able to appreciate the nested relationship between home‐town‐country. Previous research by Piaget, Jahoda, Piche and Daggs has questioned the ability of such young children to comprehend this type of place hierarchy. In this research, children aged 5–6, 7–8 and 9–10 years participated in assessments of their understanding of the nested relationship between home‐Nuneaton‐England‐British Isles‐Europe, using three methods: map shading, oral interview and jigsaw arrangements. The results suggest that young children's understanding may have improved since Jahoda's 1963 study, although further research is needed to confirm this interpretation. There was also a strong correlation between children's travel experience and their performance in these tests. There was no differencebetween the results of boys and girls. It is suggested that increased media presentation of place knowledge, especially on television; the expansion of children's travel experience and the enriched learning resources encouraged by the National Curriculum may account for the improvement. It is concluded that the inclusion of nested place relationships in the curriculum of infant children is justified.