Interpretations of graphs by university biology students and practicing scientists: Toward a social practice view of scientific representation practices

Using graphs is a key social practice of professional science. As part of a research program that investigates the development of graphing practices f rom elementary school to professional science activities, this study was de signed to investigate similarities and differences in graph-related interpr etations between scientists and college students engaged in collective grap h interpretation. Forty-five students in a second-year university ecology c ourse and four scientists participated in the study. Guided by domain-speci fic concerns, scientists' graph-related activities were characterized by a large number of experience-based, domain-specific interpretive resources an d practices. Students' group based activities were characterized by the lac k of linguistic distinctions (between scientific terms) which led to ambigu ities in group negotiations; there was also a lack of knowledge about speci fic organism populations which helped held ecologists construct meaning. Ma ny students learned to provide correct answers to specific graphing questio ns but did not come to make linguistic distinctions or increase their knowl edge of specific populations. In the absence of concerns other than to do w ell in the course, students did Rot appear to develop any general interpret ive skills for graphs, but learned instead to apply the professor's interpr etation. This is problematic because, as we have demonstrated, there are wi dely differing viable interpretations of the graph. Suggestions for changes in learning environments for graphing that should alleviate this problem a re made. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.