Investigating Adults’ Statistical Literacy in a Second Chance School - Through the Teaching of Graphs

Oct 15, 2026

The study examines adults’ statistical literacy through their ability to comprehend graphs taught in a Greek Second Chance School. Grounded in the importance of graph understanding for statistical literacy, the research evaluates progress in adults’ comprehension and interpretation of media-published graphs, including potentially misleading examples. Findings indicate movement beyond basic graph reading toward interpretation, while critical judgment remained limited, with interpretations often influenced by dispositional factors rather than statistical knowledge.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Numeracy and Statistical literacy

Dispositions and knowledge components

Graph comprehension literature review

Investigating adults’ statistical literacy in a Second Chance School through the teaching of graphs Aristoula Kontogianni Western Macedonia University of Applied Sciences-Greece <[desmath@gmail.com](desmath@gmail.com)> Konstantinos Tatsis University of Ioannina-Greece <[ktatsis@uoi.gr](ktatsis@uoi.gr)> Abstract Based on the significance of graph comprehension within statistical literacy, we present the findings of a study that took place in a Second Chance School in Greece. Our aim was to assess the progress of adults’comprehension of graphs. In order to offer to our adult students tasks with realistic context we used graphs, published in the media, some of them being potentially misleading. Our results showed that some of the adults have managed to move from the mere reading of the graphs to their interpretation . However, their critical sense was not so well developed since they often based their interpretations on their dispositionsand not on their statistical knowledge. Key words: statistical literacy; adult students; graph comprehension; Second Chance School Introduction The skills that adults need in order to solve everyday problems which contain mathematical and statistical elements has been a topic for research over the last decades (Tout & Gal, 2015) . This research area, which might be called Adult’s Mathematics Education or Adults Learning Mathematics, can be placed in the borderland between mathematics education and adult education (Wedege, 2010) . According to Wedege, its key concept is numeracy and the research field is related to adults, mathematics and lifelong education in a societal context. This means that there are different kinds of adult education settings (Evans, Wedege & Yasukawa, 2013), like adults’basic education (ABE) either in formal or informal contexts. Acknowledging the importance of a modern citizen’s ability to interpret visual data coming from the media, especially data representing statistical information, we organised a study with adults studying in a Greek “Second Chance School”(SCS), described more fully below. In particular, our aim was to monitor the progress of adults’ statistical knowledge during the teaching of basic statistical concepts. Although there are studies about students’ graph comprehension in secondary education (e.g. Aoyama, 2007) or tertiary education (e.g. Monteiro & Ainley, 2007), there are not studies about students in adults’ basic education programs. In this paper we focus on the adult students’ graph comprehension and how this develops when they have to interpret media graphs and misleading graphs. Our research questions were formulated as follows: • What is the students’ level of graph comprehension? • Do students demonstrate a critical sense towards the statistical information presented by the graphs? Numeracy and Statistical literacy Although it is not easy to discriminate between the different notions of numeracy, it is a fact that numeracy can serve as a connection between mathematics and adult life (Evans, Wedege & Yasukawa, 2013) . Similarly, Dalby (2017) concludes that numeracy does not refer to a simplified type of mathematics but concerns the way a person uses it. Developing the analysis, four dimensions of “numerate behavior” were identified for the PIAAC survey: (a) context (everyday life, work, societal, further learning), (b) response (identify/locate/access (information); act on/use; interpret/evaluate, (c) mathematical content (quantity and number, dimension and shape, pattern and relationships, data and chance) and (d) representations of mathematical/statistical information for example text, tables and graphs (EVANS, 2014, pp. 39-40, citing OECD, 2012) . Among these dimensions there are direct references to statistical knowledge and as a consequence to statistical literacy. There is no consensus at this time about the notion of statistical literacy in the relevant literature (Budgett, 2017). Gal (2002), referr

FAQs

What was the study’s main aim regarding adults’ graph comprehension?

To assess adults’ progress in understanding graphs taught in a Second Chance School, focusing on basic statistical concepts and interpretation of media graphs.

How were the graphs in the tasks chosen?

Graphs were taken from media sources and included some that were potentially misleading, to test how adults interpret statistical information under realistic conditions.

What did the results show about adults’ critical sense?

Some adults improved from merely reading graphs to interpreting them, but their critical sense was not strongly developed, as interpretations were often based on dispositions rather than statistical knowledge.

Oct 15, 2026

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