EXTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS AND PROBLEM SOLVING COMPETENCE: DO GRAPHS IMPROVE PROBLEM SOLVING IN STUDENTS?

Lisa A. Best, Brandie M. Stewart and Katherine P. McGuire, University of New Brunswick, Canada

With the advent of computer technology and the popularity of the Internet as an information- gathering tool, the academic environment has changed. In today’s digital age, students expect their education to include technology. Given the shift in information delivery and the expectations of students, it is important to assess how well students are able to learn when presented with different types of information. Graphs have proven to be an effective communication and presentation tool, but as technology has advanced the methods available for displaying data have multiplied. The primary goal of this study was to explore individual differences in graph comprehension. Overall results suggested that students who have high mathematical problem solving scores and are able to correctly identify the function of different displays are better able to accurately extract information from visual displays. Implications for education are discussed.