Designing a sequence of activities to build reasoning about data and visualization

Abstract

Our complex world requires multivariate reasoning to make sense of reality. Within this paper, we offer a sequence of activities designed to develop multivariate reasoning by explicitly connecting data and visualization. The activities were designed based on a hypothetical learning trajectory we conjectured for students with limited experience with multivariate visualizations. Drawing from evidence collected using these activities in a series of professional development sessions with in‐service teachers, we find that the activities functioned as intended, and thus we promote these activities for developing students' multivariate reasoning at the secondary and post‐secondary level. We detail specific challenges the teachers faced, and based on these results, offer our reflections and recommendations for curricula and teaching.