Analyzing Data Visualizations in Social Studies Textbooks
Prepare.
1. Before you begin reviewing your textbook, make sure that you have materials to take notes and keep a good record of your findings.
Skim the book.
2. Does the book strike you as having a lot of data visualizations, or fewer than you expected? Record your impression.
Choose 3 chapters on which to focus.
3. Count the number of data visualizations (e.g., timelines, maps, graph, and charts) across the three chapters. Record the number and use the quantity as a proxy for the whole book.
4. Based on the number you recorded: About how often would students encounter a data visualization when reading these chapters? Divide the number of pages in the 3 chapters by the number of data visualizations and record the number. This can serve as an estimate for how many pages a student would read before encountering a new data visualization.
5. What is your impression of the data visualizations? Is there a wide variety? Do they seem simple or complex? Record and explain your response.
Choose 3 data visualizations from these chapters on which to focus.
6. Snap a picture of the data visualizations for reference and sharing.
7. For each of the 3 data visualizations:
a. Record the type of data visualization that it is, and explain what it is about. Try to be as specific as possible.
b. Consider its relationship to the surrounding verbal text. Does it simply support the verbal text, or does it extend the verbal text by
providing information that can’t be gleaned from the verbal text alone? What information does it give? Or does it seem irrelevant and misplaced? If a student reads this data visualization well, what would they be able to learn from it? How might it enhance his/her understanding? Record your responses.
c. What kind of challenges do you anticipate students would have in making sense of the data visualization? Is it overly complex? Does it have a lot of irrelevant data? Are there concepts associated it with it that might be difficult for students? How could the textbook authors have mitigated some of these anticipated challenges? Record your responses.
Give your textbook an overall data literacy rating.
8. Use a scale of 1 to 5 to rate your textbook’s support of data literacy, with 5 being “highly supportive of data literacy” and 1 being “no support for data literacy.”
9. Provide an explanation of your rating and make note of the supports you would need to provide through instruction.
