The Non-Verbal Information Sources in Textbooks of Geography

The paper contributes to the studies of non-verbal information sources in the school textbooks of geography. Six main types of sources are stated there: cartographical, statistical, pictorial, schematic, geometrical and symbolic. In subclassification nineteen classes of the abovementioned sources are distinguished: functions of the non-verbal information sources are characterized from the point of view of the theory of communication, didactics, and psychology. The problem of non-verbal information sources has been studied at the department of geography at the Teachers' Training College in Ostrava. Non-verbal information sources from the textbooks on geography from five socialist countries have been analysed. The results obtained are of considerable importance for general and special theories of textbook writing as well as for the didactics of cartography. The research is in accord with the general trend in comtemporary didactics of geography aimed at the problem of teaching process and at the application of new branches of sciences on the didactics of geography. The means of computers technique have been used in the analysis.