The Examination Of Secondary School Students’ Graphic Skills: Construction And Interpretation Of Line Graphs

This study was aimed to compare the skills to students’ creating a line graph by examining line graph construction and interpretation skills of secondary school students. Research sample consisted of 93 students, who studied 6th, 7th and 8th grade in an secondary school at Sivas in central. As a data collection tool, ‘Test of Graphing in Science (TOGS)’ test which developed by Makenzie and Padilla (1986) including 26 multiple- choice questions concerning line graphs, was adapted to Turkish. The test supported by open- ended questions and creating a line graph question, with pre-determined reliability, was applied to the sample. The obtained data were analyzed with SPSS 16.0. Both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were conducted. In the light of the findings, it was determined that students’ line graph construction and interpretation skills did not differ significantly between 7th and 8th grades, but it was found to be quite low in favor of the upper classes in 6th grade. Although the higher the grade level of the students has improved creating a line graph, it was found to be low scores on creating a line graph in the 6th grade level. Also, it was determined that a positive correlation was found between students’ line graph construction and interpretation skills obtained from TOGS and their creating a line graph scores.