Investigating 7th grade students' processes of drawing graph and interpreting data in graphs

The purpose of this study was to investigate five 7th grade students', who were studying at a public middle school, abilities to draw graphs compatible with the data presented in table and levels of reading and interpreting data presented in graphs and investigated the challenges that students encountered while they were drawing, reading and interpreting graphs. The qualitative case study was utilized in this study. This study was conducted during the spring semester of the 2017-2018 academic year. The participants of the study consisted of five (4 girls, 1 boy) students in 7th grade of a public middle school in a rural area near the city of Sivas. The data sources for this study were students' written activity sheets of including drawing graph, reading and interpretation graph and individual interviews implemented after the students worked on written activities. Findings of study on graphing process and errors in graphing process showed that all five students were not successful enough in the activities that required drawing line graphs, bar graphs and circle graphs. All participating students made various errors during drawing process of each type of graphs. Data initially displayed that students had difficulty in determining appropriate graphs to data presented in tables. They also had difficulty explaining reasons why they selected that type of graph for data given to them. It is also observed that students had difficulty in naming appropriate graphs. Findings of study regarding students' reading and interpreting graphs showed that level of the students' interpreting graph by reading between data varied between very low level, low level and medium level also findings displayed that students did not have difficulty in answering sub-questions given in activity sheets that should be answered by reading graphics data directly. The findings of this study had several implications for mathematics teachers, researchers and text-book writers. Keywords: Drawing Graphs, Reading Graphs, Interpreting Graphs, Middle School Students, Statistical Process