Children’s graph comprehension before and after formal instruction [Author Accepted Manuscript]

Can children solve the most frequent type of graph comprehension problem in 5th to 8th grade textbooks before they receive formal instruction in graph comprehension? In Study 1, we analyzed all 1,091 graph problems in three major U.S. mathematics textbook series aimed at those grades. Simple problems, such as linking a data point on a graph to its coordinates, were most frequent in all grades. More difficult problems, such as determining slopes, were relatively rare, though they became somewhat more common in later grades. In Study 2, we tested whether middle school students (N = 85) more accurately solve types of graph problems that are more common in textbooks than types of problems that are less common in the textbooks; we found that they do. In Study 3, fourth graders (N = 42), who had not received formal graph instruction, proved highly accurate on the types of problems that remain very common even in 7th and 8th grade textbooks. These findings reveal a misalignment between textbook content and students’ prior knowledge, as well as a need for textbooks to place greater emphasis on more challenging graph comprehension problems.