Perception and landscape in the everyday life of schools in rural and urban areas

Abstract: The study identified the perception of the environment by students from four schools located in cultural, rural and urban landscapes. In the students’ perception, identified using mind maps, there is a significant predominance of natural, biotic and abiotic elements, which indicates a naturalistic perception of the environment. Students demonstrated a perception of characteristic elements of the landscape surrounding the school and the city: trees, hills/mountains, streams and lakes/dams, thus highlighting the influence of the city’s landscape on the perception of the environment presented by them. The perception of the local landscape, expressed through daily life experiences, is a form of landscape reading constructed by the students via everyday experiences with the city’s landscape, thus presenting itself as an alternative to be used by teachers for environmental education through the reading of the landscape in which the schools are inserted.