Complexities of graphical representations during ecology lectures: an analysis rooted in semiotics and hermeneutic phenomenology

Graphing-related activities are notoriously difficult for students of science. In this article, we examine cognitive complexities when graphs are used in lectures. All 39 lectures of a second-year university course in ecology were recorded and transcribed for analysis. To understand student problems with graphing, we also videotaped all 36 seminars in which students engaged in solving problems related to the lecture topics. Finally, 14 scientists interpreting graphs were videotaped. Our analyses show that lectures present a scant image of everyday scientific practices related to the use and interpretation of graphs. In particular, (a) the normally existing mutually-constitutive relationship between phenomena and their graphical representations is not sufficiently elaborated and (b) important relationships proper to ecology are not maintained when mundane examples are chosen ad hoc. Our analytic method, which draws on semiotics and hermeneutic phenomenology, reveals cultural and personal dimensions of the difficulties of learning graphical representations.