Data-literate citizenry: how US state standards address data and data visualizations in social studies

Purpose

Data literacy – the ability to read, analyze, interpret, evaluate and argue with data and data visualizations – is an essential competency in social studies. This study aims to examine the degree to which US state standards require teachers to teach data literacy in social studies, addressing the questions: to what extent are US social studies teachers required to teach data literacy? If they are required to teach it, are they provided with guidance about competencies to address at each school or grade level and with respect to particular content?

Design/methodology/approach

The study used content analysis, using a variety of priori and emergent codes, to review social studies standards documents from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Findings

Findings indicate that although state standards suggest that data visualizations should play a role in social studies instruction, they provide poor guidance for a coherent, progressive and critical approach across grade levels.

Originality/value

Researchers currently know little about if and how teachers address data literacy in social studies education. This study provides a snapshot of guidance teachers across states are given for teaching data literacy, and by extension, the quality of data literacy instruction recommended for students across the USA.

Differences in Thematic Map Reading by Students and Their Geography Teacher

A school world atlas is likely the first systematic cartographic product which students encounter in their lives. However, only a few empirical studies have analysed school atlases in the context of map reading and learning geographical curricula. The present paper describes an eye-tracking study conducted on 30 grammar school students and their geography teacher. The study explored ten tasks using thematic world maps contained in the Czech school world atlas. Three research questions were posed: (i) Are students able to learn using these particular types of maps? (ii) Have the cartographic visualization methods in the school atlas been adequately selected? (iii) Does the teacher read the maps in the same manner as students? The results proved that the students were sufficiently able to learn using thematic maps. The average correctness of their answers exceeded 70%. However, the results highlighted several types of cartographic visualization methods which students found difficult to read. Most of the difficulties arose from map symbols being poorly legible. The most problematic task was estimating the value of the phenomenon from the symbol size legend. Finally, the difference between the students’ and teacher’s manner of reading maps in each task was analysed qualitatively and then quantitatively by applying two different scanpath comparison methods. The study revealed that the geography teacher applied a different method than her students. She avoided looking at the map legend and solved the task using her knowledge.

Using Eye Tracking to Explore Differences in Map-Based Spatial Ability between Geographers and Non-Geographers

In this article, we use eye-tracking methods to analyze the differences in spatial ability between geographers and non-geographers regarding topographic maps, as reflected in the following three aspects: map-based spatial localization, map-based spatial orientation, and map-based spatial visualization. We recruited 32 students from Beijing Normal University (BNU) and divided them into groups of geographers and non-geographers based on their major. In terms of their spatial localization ability, geographers had shorter response times, higher fixation frequencies, and fewer saccades than non-geographers, and the differences were significant. For their spatial orientation ability, compared to non-geographers, geographers had significantly lower response times, lower fixation counts and fewer saccades as well as significantly higher fixation frequencies. In terms of their spatial visualization ability, geographers’ response times were significantly shorter than those of non-geographers, but there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of fixation count, fixation frequency or saccade count. We also found that compared to geographers, non-geographers usually spent more time completing these tasks. The results of this study are helpful in improving the map-based spatial ability of users of topographic maps.

Students' understanding of external representations of the potassium ion channel protein, part I: affordances and limitations of ribbon diagrams, vines, and hydrophobic/polar representations

Research on external representations in biochemistry has uncovered student difficulties in comprehending and interpreting external representations. This project focuses on students' understanding of three external representations of the potassium ion channel protein. This is part I of a two-part study, which focuses on the affordances and limitations of representations of the potassium ion channel according to students across the chemistry and biochemistry curriculum. Analysis showed that if the students do not possess the required prior knowledge then they are stymied in their interpretations of the representations. Students were able to easily interpret the familiar ribbon diagram representation; however, they found the vines and hydrophobic/polar representations to be less informative. Suggestions for instruction are to probe student understanding and to help students activate prior knowledge to build a more connected set of concepts pertaining to protein structure.