Differences in graph-related practices between high school biology textbooks and scientific ecology journals

Abstract

Our research program is concerned with the trajectory of individuals from their initial participation in science-related activities to their full participation in scientific research. This study was designed to provide answers to questions about (a) the practices required for reading graphs in high school textbooks and scientific journals, and (b) the role of high school textbooks in the appropriation of authentic scientific graph-related practices. For our analyses, we selected five leading ecology-related journals and six representative high school biology textbooks. Although there were no differences in the total number of inscriptions used in journals and textbooks, there were significant differences in the frequency with which Cartesian graphs were used. To allow more detailed analyses, an ontology of graphs was developed. Our fine-grained analyses based on this ontology yielded qualitative differences between the uses of graphs and associated captions and main text as they appeared in high school textbooks and scientific journals. Scientific journals provided more resources to facilitate graph reading and more elaborate descriptions and interpretations of graphs than the high school textbooks. Implications of this study are outlined as they relate to (a) producing graphs, captions, and main text in high school textbooks; and (b) teaching and researching graph-related practices from anthropological perspectives. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 977-1019, 1999 What counts in particular disciplinary contexts as convincing arguments or persuasive results is inexorably tied to the practical devices through which phenomena become accountable. (Lynch, 1995, p. 255, emphasis in the original) Over the past decade, there have been an increasing number of studies documenting the pivotal roles and functions of representation practices in science (e.g., Knorr-Cetina & Amann, 1990;Latour, 1993;Lynch, 1995; Lynch & Woolgar, 1990). Following Latour (1987), representations other than text are called "inscriptions." They first appear in scientific laboratories JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING VOL. 36, NO. 9, PP. 977-1019(1999 © and field sites, and-after having been cleaned, superposed, transformed-are later used in scientific publications. Inscriptions include readings from simple devices, recordings from automated devices, computer screen output, photographs, micrographs, data tables, graphs, and equations. The more information an inscription summarizes, the more it becomes complex, resistant to deconstruction, and powerful (Latour, 1987). Despite the centrality of representation practices in science, relatively little work has been done in science education from either sociological or psychological perspectives. Consequently, the way inscriptions are used in science education is typically not informed by a deep understanding and sound theory of cognition (Lowe, 1993;Schnotz, 1993) or representation practices (Roth & McGinn, 1997).Practices related to graphing are quintessential to s...

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