The aim of the current study was to investigate the statistical literacy of seventh grade students regarding the concepts of average and variation on bar and line graphs presented in alternative real-life contexts. To this end, the statistical literacy levels of the seventh grade students were initially determined. Subsequently, definitions,…

Graphical literacy or graphicacy is a critical component of scientific literacy. Graphs are used to integrate and represent complex sets of information requiring abstraction from perceptual experience. They form essential parts of the Mathematics and Science curriculum across school curricular stages. A key to developing meaningful pedagogic…

The aim of this research was to describe the errors and reading levels that 6th and 7th grade Chilean primary school children reach when working with line graphs. To achieve this objective, we gave a questionnaire, previously validated by experts with two open-ended tasks, to a sample of 745 students from different Chilean cities. In the first…

Using multiple external representations is advocated for learning in STEM education. This learning approach assumes that multiple external representations promote richer mental representations and a deeper understanding of the concept. In mathematics, the concept of function is a prototypical content area in which multiple representations are…

Visual representations and the process of visualisation have an important role in geometry learning. The optimal use of visual representations in complex multimedia environments has been an important research topic since the end of the last century. For the purpose of the study presented in this paper, we designed a model of learning geometry with…

This study investigated the graphing skills and some affective states of middle school students about graphs by their gender, grade level, and the common graph types used in science courses. Participants' line graph skills, selfefficacy beliefs and attitudes toward graphs, and their personal literacy perceptions about different graph types (line,…

The aim of this research was comparing the performance of primary school Chilean children when reading different types of graphs included in the primary school curriculum in this country (pictogram, line graph, pie chart and dot plot). A sample of 745 6th and 7th Grade students were given a questionnaire including four tasks in each of which they…

This survey design study was designed to test whether the graph skills and affective states of middle school students about graphs differ by their gender, grade level, and graph types (line, bar, and pie). The data collection instruments consisted of two scales developed by the authors and a Graph Skills Test, which consisted of graph questions…

In a globalized world, the ability to speak English has become increasingly significant. A large number of students who are learning English as foreign language face obstacles in acquiring and storing vocabulary. Children with learning disabilities are especially at risk because of a limited power of retention and motivational struggles. Having an…

This research was motivated by several studies which show that students have difficulties in understanding the material ratio, wherein one contributing factor is the lack of ability in proportional reasoning. The purpose of this study is to produce a trajectory of learning to help students develop abilities in comparison reasoning. Solution…

Textbooks are one of the primary teaching tools frequently used in schools and most teachers use them in their classrooms (Sanchez and Valcarcel, 1999). Since there are a lot of abstract concepts in science education, images in science textbooks play a vital role in the learning process (Kenan et al., 2011). Concretization of abstract concepts may…

Studies that consider the displays that students create to organize data are not common in the literature. This article compares fifth through eighth graders' difficulties with the creation of bar graphs using either raw data (Study 1, n = 155) or a provided table (Study 2, n = 152). Data in Study 1 showed statistical differences for the type of…

This paper replicates and extends my earlier work on productive failure in mathematical problem solving (Kapur, doi:10.1007/s11251-009-9093-x, 2009). One hundred and nine, seventh-grade mathematics students taught by the same teacher from a Singapore school experienced one of three learning designs: (a) traditional lecture and practice (LP), (b)…

This study documented efforts to facilitate ideas of beginning inference in novice grade 7 students. A design experiment allowed modified teaching opportunities in light of observation of components of a framework adapted from that developed by Pfannkuch for teaching informal inference with box plots. Box plots were replaced by hat plots, a…

Although some bright students in primary school are able to organise numerical data into classes, most attend to the characteristics of individuals rather than the group, and "see the trees rather than the forest". How can teachers in upper primary and early high school teach students to organise large sets of data with widely varying…