Back on the French experience in the classroom HyperAtlas Caroline Leininger-Frézal

Experimentations  27 students working in pairs in computer classroom  Private school in may 2014  Pupils have already study EU two years ago  Often very synthetic responses that fail to take into account all the manipulations made

The use of the tools  HyperAtlas is easy to handle.  Except two pupil, all have understood the different the scales of representation of the information : nuts 0, nuts 1, nuts 2  No problem to read spatial informations : 100% succes to Q3 and Q7.  Netheless, some students are more specific in their response

INDICATORS CHOOSEN TO APPRECIATE DISPARITIES IN EU  The couple GDP - HDI is choosen by 55% of pupils.

How to explain the differences in wealth in the EU?  Geographical determinism : size of the country; size of the population; density (13 times); resources (2 times)  “Small is beautiful”  Historical explanation : ex USSR member ; recent intrance in EU (9 times); wars (1 time)  Economic and financial context : tax haven (Luxemburg) (4 times); liberalism (1time); capitalism (1 time); economic activities (7 times)  Political context : political instability (1 time) (Croatia; Bulgaria); no political reform; politics (1 time)  Social context : way of life (1); distribution of wealth (1)

 The justifications are not based on the observation of indicators. (not mentioned in answers)  The presence of snapshots in the responses. How to explain the differences in wealth in the EU?

From spatial informations to spatial thinking Most of pupils have identified discontinuities.

Discontinuities identified

Do pupils identify differences between nuts 0 and 2 ? European subsidies Metropolis and cities are more developed. Disparities in european contries

Proposals  Little personal involvement : only 4 pupil used personnel pronoun  Solutions ?  Economic development (4 times)  Legal harmonization (4 times)  Social reform (minimum income, social security) (4 times)

 Thanks for your attention