Professionals Read Graphs: A Semiotic Analysis
Search for other papers by Wolff-Michael Roth in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by G. Michael Bowen in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Graph-related practices are central to scientific endeavors, and graphing has long been hailed as one of the core “general process skills” that set scientists apart. We use two case studies from a large study among scientists to exemplify our findings that graphing is not a context-independent skill. Rather, scientists' competencies with respect to graph interpretation are highly contextual and are a function of their familiarity with the phenomena to which the graph pertains. If graphing practices are not general but are tied to embodied understandings and familiarity with representation practices, then there are implications for teaching graphing in school mathematics and science settings.
Contributor Notes
Wolff-Michael Roth, Lansdowne Professor, Applied Cognitive Science, MacLaurin Building A548, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada V8W 3N4; mroth@uvic.ca
