Orienteering in Geography Education in Japanese High School

Abstract. Orienteering, a map activity, has been described as effective in learning geography in school education. When dealing with orienteering in school education, it is learning outdoors different from ordinary classroom lessons. Also, the environment surrounding school education differs from country to country. From this, it is important to show the practice of orienteering in school education in each country. In this research, I described the practice of orienteering in geography education of Japanese high schools in the following three viewpoints. The three viewpoints are the significance of orienteering in geography education, learning system of orienteering in geography education, examples of orienteering in geography education at school. The main points are as follows.

1. The skills given by orienteering are the basis of map learning and field learning in geography education.
2. Learning system of orienteering is related to the map learning and field learning perspective, such as related to the map-scale linked with place.
3. Orienteering practice in regular geography class at school grounds is the core, and good learning effect can be obtained. After this, orienteering can be expanded in a wide variety of directions.