Interpretation of tables by students of primary and secondary education

Michael Skoumios1 and Vasileios Garganourakis2
1 University of the Aegean, skoumios@rho.forthnet.gr
2 1st High School of Rhodes, vgargan@gmail.com

Although students' ability to interpret data constitutes an essential component of scientific literacy, few researches are focused on the interpretation of tables by students. This work aims to investigate primary and secondary education students' ability to interpret data that are presented in a table. A written questionnaire was used as research tool of data collection. The sample of research is constituted by 123 students (39 in the age of 12, 40 in the age of 14 and 44 in the age of 16 years old). The analysis of students' answers and explanations allowed the mapping in levels of students' ability to interpret data from a table and it showed that is not differentiated considerably as students move from primary to High school.