ATLASES AS A TEACHING RESOURCE - FINDINGS FROM A NATIONAL SURVEY

With an estimated 750 000 copies in secondary schools, ata replacement cost of some pound 6.6 million, atlases are a fundamental teaching to ol. Sandford (1985) claimed that they were seldom used and then princi pally only to locate places being studied. A postal questionnaire sent to Heads of Geography in 1000 secondary schools in England and Wales revealed changing patterns of atlas based activities across key stages 3 and 4. Although atlas skills would seem to have broadened since San dford's assessment, there remain some concerns about the match between the types of atlases schools buy and the uses to which they are put.