A conceptual framework for facilitating geospatial thinking

In this article we investigate whether a geospatial task-based framework can be conceptualized and developed to assist in structuring (in a grade-related context) a conceptual framework that could help build a vocabulary and scope and sequence structure for the geospatial thinking that makes the world and its activities legible to us. Our argument is presented in conceptual terms, but we offer preliminary evidence, based on work with local third-grade and sixth-grade students, that a hierarchy of concepts can be developed based on complexity, and we give results from pilot experiments to illustrate the feasibility of the hypothetical framework. The pilot studies show a clear differentiation of vocabulary and concept use between the two sampled grades and provide some substantiation of the potential use of the conceptual framework.