Understanding and overcoming students’ difficulties in interpreting graphs: insights from a racing car problem

Abstract

The study investigates university students’ difficulties in interpreting graphs through the analysis of their responses to the modified PISA racing car problem. The impact of adding a distractor that is appealing to students and supplementary questions to enhance students’ graph understanding is explored. Eye-tracking technology was used to capture participants’ visual attention during the task. The findings highlight the challenges of treating graphs as pictures and the benefits of incorporating additional questions to improve students’ comprehension. The study emphasizes the need for instructional strategies that address intuitive reasoning and promote reflective thinking in graph interpretation.