Youth reasoning with interactive data visualizations: A preliminary study

Abstract

Youth interact with data constantly through visualizations on social feeds and news sites. Unlike traditional graphs that are the focus of school instruction, visualizations use context rich and interactive methods to create narratives and allow users to explore data for themselves. We ask: How do youth make sense of interactive data visualizations? Nine participants ages 12-13 completed semi-structured, think-aloud clinical interviews as they worked with data visualizations about socio-scientific issues. Findings suggest learners used a variety of resources, but often did not coordinate those resources. When they did, they built deeper understandings of the visualizations and their content.