High School Students Interpreting Tables and Graphs: Implications for Research

Abstract

Concerns about students' difficulties in statistical reasoning led to a study which explored form five (14-to 16-year-olds) students' ideas in this area. The study focussed on descriptive statistics, graphical representations, and probability. This paper presents and discusses the ways in which students made sense of information in graphical representations (tables and bar graph) obtained from the individual interviews. The findings revealed that many of the students used strategies based on prior experiences (everyday and school) and intuitive strategies. From the analysis, I identified a fourcategory rubric for classifying students' responses. While the results of the study confirm a number of findings of other researchers, the findings go beyond those discussed in the literature. While students could read and compare data presented in a bar graph, they were less competent at reading tables. This could be due to instructional neglect of these concepts or linguistic and contextual problems. The paper concludes by suggesting some implications for researchers.

Identifying Senior High School Students’ Misconceptions About Statistical Correlation, and Their Possible Causes: An Exploratory Study Using Concept Mapping With Interviews

“…First, previous studies of the learning of scientific information have found that the use of everyday language may result in students' misunderstanding of the academic terms used in a specific discipline (e.g., Sharma, 2006). The current study also found that the different meanings of some terms used in statistics and everyday life easily confused learners.…”

“…Furthermore, external connections refer to learners retrieving prior concepts in their long-term memory in order to integrate new concepts (Mayer, 1987). Although the new concepts may become more meaningful when they are correctly interrelated with other existing concepts (e.g., Piaget, 1952), it was found in the current study that learners adopt daily language, experiences, or existing mathematical concepts that are either incorrect or correct but inappropriate to interpret new concepts, so that they may lead to the construction of misconceptions (Sharma, 2006). This is discussed in detail below.…”

“…However, students who have taken statistics or mathematics courses often still lack knowledge about the relationships among important, functional statistical concepts (Roberts, 1999). Besides, some students hold various statistical misconceptions that hinder their comprehension and application of concepts (Pollatsek, Lima & Well, 1981;Garfield & Ahlgren, 1988;Morris, 2001;Sharma, 2006). For example, it has been revealed that even misconceptions about the mean, one of the most basic statistical concepts, are deeply ingrained in many college students' minds, and this seriously hinders their follow-up learning (Pollatsek et al, 1981).…”

<b>Dificuldades semióticas na construção de gráficos cartesianos em cinemática</b><br>DOI: 10.5007/2175-7941.2011v28n3p546

“…Verificamos que situação semelhante ocorre em atividades de laboratório da referida graduação em Física, quando os estudantes não são capazes de desenvolver e interpretar gráficos cartesianos de forma satisfatória. Existe um campo de estudo consolidado a respeito da compreensão/interpretação das representações gráficas, do tipo tabela e gráfico cartesiano, usados no Ensino de Ciências (AGRELLO; GARG, 1999;POSTIGO;POZO, 2000;SHAH;ROEFNNER, 2002;ARAÚJO;VEIT;MOREIRA, 2004;WU;KRAJCIK, 2006;GARCÍA;PALÁCIOS, 2007;JULIO;VAZ;BORGES, 2008;BELLUCO;CARVALHO, 2009) e na Educação Matemática (TESTA et al, 2002;SHARMA, 2005;FLORES;MORETTI, 2006;MIRANDA;RADFORD;GÚZMAN, 2007). Tais estudos desenvolveram pesquisas relacionadas à forma como essas representações são interpretadas ou compreendidas pelos estudantes, no entanto, não se preocuparam em focar seus estudos no modo e nas dificuldades que se apresentam quando essas representações são produzidas.…”

Uma Proposta De Referencial Analítico De Gráficos Cinemática a Partir De Tabelas

“…É importante observar que existe um campo de estudo consolidado a respeito da compreensão/interpretação das representações gráficas, do tipo tabela e gráfico cartesiano, usados no ensino de Ciências (Agrello e Garg, 1999;Postigo e Pozo, 2000;Shah e Roefnner, 2002;Araújo, Veit e Moreira, 2004;Wu e Krajcik, 2006;García e Palácios, 2007;Julio, Vaz e Borges, 2008; Belluco e Carvalho, 2009) e na educação matemática (Testa et al, 2002;Duval, 2003;Sharma, 2005;Flores e Moretti, 2006;Miranda, Radford e Gúzman, 2007). Tais autores desenvolveram pesquisas relacionadas à forma como que essas representações são interpretadas ou compreendidas pelos estudantes, no entanto, não se preocuparam em focar seus estudos no modo e nas dificuldades que se apresentam quando essas representações são produzidas.…”