What lies behind graphicacy? Relating students' results on a test of graphically represented quantitative information to formal academic achievement

Abstract

Based on studies carried out on qualitative data an instrument was constructed for investigating how larger numbers of students handle graphics. This test, consisting of 18 pages, each with its own graphic display(s) and a set of tasks, was distributed to 363 students, 15-16 years of age, from five different schools. The format of the questions varied, as did the format of the graphics. As students' performance was expected to be multidimensional, confirmatory factor analysis was carried out with a structural equation modeling technique. In addition to the identification of a general graphicacy-test factor (Gen) and an end-of-test effect (End 0 ), a narrative dimension (Narr 0 ) was vaguely indicated. This model was then related to a six-factor model of students' formal academic achievement measured by their leaving certificates from compulsory education. The strongest correlation obtained was between the general graphicacy-test dimension (Gen) and a mathematic/science factor (MathSc 0 ) in the grades model. In addition, substantial relationships were detected between the Gen factor and both an overall school achievement factor (SchAch) and a language factor (Lang 0 ) in the grades model. ß 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: [43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62] 2006 Graphs, charts, cartograms, thematic maps, etc., are common tools for handling and communicating quantitative information in contemporary society. Successively, through their years of schooling, students encounter increasingly more advanced forms of graphic displays, both in direct educational situations and as illustrations and/or complementary facts on other subject matters. Students' access to modern computers equipped with graphic application software makes possible not only an abundance of graphics (sometimes unnecessarily elaborate) in magazines, newspapers, television, and electronic media-encountered in their everyday life both in and out of school-but also allows them to create these images. Thus, being ''graphicate''

“Then you can take half … almost” — Elementary students learning bar graphs and pie charts in a computer-based context

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Dimensions of national test performance: A two-level approach

“…This observation, of course, could quite easily have been dismissed as an artifact of this particular version of the test, had it been the first time the phenomenon occurred. However, mathematics correlated to language factors, involving L1 and L2 performance, have previously been reported by Andersson (1998), as well as by Å berg- Bengtsson and Ottosson (2006). Andersson tentatively explained her finding by EFL being, to a certain extent, studied with a focus on grammatical rules, the acquisition of which may require competencies also necessary in learning the formal systems of mathematics.…”

Solving graphics tasks: Gender differences in middle-school students

“…It is certainly the case that the non-verbal processing of information, such as the interpretation of graphs, maps and drawings, is necessary in educational contexts as well as everyday life (Å berg-Bengtsson, 1999). Thus, attention to graphicacy is imperative (Å berg-Bengtsson & Ottosson, 2006), that is, ''being 'graphicate' is becoming an important part of everyday knowledge, equal in status to being literate and numerate' ' (p. 43e44).…”