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Logical reasoning necessary to make line graphs
Author(s) -
Wavering Michael J.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of research in science teaching
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.067
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1098-2736
pISSN - 0022-4308
DOI - 10.1002/tea.3660260502
Subject(s) - proportional reasoning , logical reasoning , ninth , number line , mathematics education , bar chart , graph , psychology , mathematics , eleventh , statement (logic) , abstract reasoning , concept learning , cognition , statistics , combinatorics , linguistics , physics , philosophy , neuroscience , acoustics
A study was conducted to determine the logical reasoning necessary to construct line graphs. Three types of line graphs were used: a straight line with a positive slope, a straight line with a negative slope, and an exponentially increasing curve. The subjects were students in grades six through twelve enrolled in a laboratory school. The responses were classified into one of nine categories. The categories ranged from no attempt to make a graph to a complete graph with a statement of a relationship between the variables. Subjects in grades six through eight exhibited behaviors mainly in the first four categories, ninth‐ and tenth‐grade subjects scored in the middle categories, and eleventh and twelfth graders scored mainly in the upper categories. These response categories also showed a close fit with Piagetian concrete operational structures for single and double seriation and formal operational structures for proportional reasoning and correlational reasoning.