Abstract

MADRID, Ana E.; VALENZUELA-RUIZ, Silvia M.; BATANERO, Carmen  and  GARZON-GUERRERO, José A.. Interpretation of boxplot by university students of physical activity and sport sciences. Educ. mat. [online]. 2022, vol.34, n.3, pp.275-300.  Epub Mar 17, 2023. ISSN 2448-8089.  https://doi.org/10.24844/em3403.10.

The box plot was developed by Tukey as a tool in exploratory data analysis and is used to summarise and compare distributions in terms of their extreme values, median and quartiles. Although its teaching is included in various curricular guidelines for secondary education, research related to its understanding is still scarce. In order to identify semiotic conflicts in its interpretation, we present the results of a study to evaluate the understanding of this graph in 148 university students of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences after studying the subject. The open responses to a task with four questions related to the identification of the median and outliers in the graph and the interpretation of the quartiles and whiskers are analysed, looking at the reading level achieved. The results show ease of identification of the elements of the graph, although we observe semiotic conflicts related to the definition and computation of median and confusion of other concepts.

Keywords : Semiotic conflicts; box plot; data distribution; university students; reading graphs; statistics education.

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