Students’ understanding of charts: the study of PISA’s problem-solving in the content of data

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze students’ ability to interpret data that were presented in charts. The analysis was based on the students’ problem-solving of PISA problems regarding charts. The participants were 50 grade-seven students from 3 different schools in Banda Aceh. From the four types of charts namely scatter chart, line chart, bar chart and pie chart, it was found that the students’ tended to understand problems that were presented on only one observational dimension. The students’ explanation about the charts focused solely on either the x-axis or y-axis. The students seemed to find it difficult to understand data which were presented in bar charts and pie charts. Basically, 13-14-year-oldstudents, according to Piaget’s cognitive development theory, are moving towards the stage of formal development so they mainly think of a concept from a single point of view. Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to bridge students’ thinking from informal stage to formal stage. Through the results of this study, we expect to enrich teachers’ references regarding the development of learning materials.