The Role of Visualisation in Data Handling in Grade 9 within a Problem‐centred Context
Date
2009-07
Authors
Wessels, D.
Makina, A.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AOSIS OpenJournals
Abstract
In the recent past, data handling has been neglected at secondary school level, perhaps
partially due to the strong emphasis on developing arithmetic, algebra and geometry. For
the first time, the South African curriculum includes substantial amounts of data handling
at all grade levels. The introduction of more data handling in the secondary school
curriculum in South Africa and the prevalence of many problems in the teaching of
probability and statistics argues for a serious reconsideration of the way it is taught to the
pupils. Currently this concern has been the focus of a call for reform in mathematics
education by a body like the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) at all
levels of schooling (NCTM, 1989; 2000). The importance of visualisation in mathematics,
at all levels of mathematical problem solving is well documented in the literature (Bishop,
1989; Maher & Alston, 1989; Moses, 1982; Wheatley, 1991) but almost nothing was done to
appreciate visualisation in the learning of data handling. The paper therefore provides a
qualitative examination from a Masters dissertation (Makina, 2005) of the role of
visualisation in the learning of data handling. This is done through examining the thought
processes involved by Grade 9 learners during visualisation while solving data handling
tasks. Several roles of visualisation were identified and most were found to improve the
critical and creative thinking of pupils during their learning of data handling. The results
show that learners are likely to improve their performance in data handling if the
awareness of the need to use visualisation creatively as a tool for understanding are
highlighted.
Description
The original publication is available at http://www.pythagoras.org.za/
Keywords
Data handling, Secondary school, Visualisation
Citation
Makina, A. and Wessels, D. 2009. The Role of Visualisation in Data Handling in Grade 9 within a Problem‐centred Context. Pythagoras 69, 56-68