Adolescents' Graphing Skills: A Descriptive Analysis.

Clinical interviews were conducted with 25 seventhand eighth-grade students to determine: (1) the extent to which they could produce correct graphical representations of familiar situations; (2) to what extent they could infer relationships from graphs; (3) what are the most commonly held graphing misconceptions and how stable they are; and (4) how consistent are students' graphing skills across different content areas and types of problems. Notes taken during and tape-recordings of the interviews were used to identify the following types of misconceptions, namely, graph as picture, slope/height confusion, centering on one variable only, linearity of scale, initial positioning at the zero point on the axis, and a static (rather than dynamic) conception of graphs. Two major misconceptions, both of which have been observed with college populations, were documented in the preliminary analysis of three items. The first misconception (graph as picture) was strongly exhibited in a bicycle problem (dealing with elevations and speed). For example, subjects drew a picture when asked to make a graph, and when presented a graph, they read it as a picture. The second misconception (slope/height confusion) was found in a problem dealing with graphs of temperature versus time of day. (JN) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be mace from the original document. *********************************************************************** TERC Technical Report 85 -1 November, 1985 ADOLESCENTS' GRAPHING SKILLS: A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS John Clement, Ph.D. University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA Janice R. Mbkros, Ph.D. Technical Education Research Centers Cambridge, MA Klaus Schultz, Ph.D. University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA U.S. DEPAITI MINT OF EDUCATION NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION EDUCATIONAA. RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER IERICI tl This dorment has Wien reproduced as received from the person or organization originat ng it. 0 Minor changes have been mad to improve reprcoluction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this doeu me nt do not necessarily represent official NIE pr.sition or policy. "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY