Our research focuses on two main questions:
- How do both children and adults understand figures, tables, and other data formats—and what makes some information easier or harder to comprehend?
- How do some children construct an integrated understanding of whole numbers, fractions, decimals, and percentages, while others have trouble?
Current Studies
Improving Graph Literacy in Children and Adults
Contact: Yoojin Hahn yh2729@tc.columbia.edu
In today’s world, understanding graphs and data is essential for making informed decisions and interpreting information accurately. Yet, there is still much to learn about how best to support children in developing these important skills. This study is designed to advance research in this area, and we invite your child to participate in a 30-minute session that includes a short graph literacy assessment, an interactive practice activity to enhance their skills, and a follow-up assessment. By participating, your child will not only gain valuable experience but also contribute to meaningful insights that could shape future educational approaches in graph literacy.
Past Studies
Improving Students’ Understanding of Percentages
Percentages, despite being very commonly used in most professions in the U.S., are not well understood by both children and adults. Previous research suggests that one of the reasons for this is that traditional teaching methods tend to focus more on computational procedures than on conceptual understanding. The purpose of this study is to address this problem by comparing the effectiveness of conceptual instruction videos to traditional rule-based videos in teaching percentages, aiming to identify more effective strategies for helping students better understand this important mathematical concept.
Textbook Distribution
In a series of studies, we examined how math textbooks can lead students to form incorrect ideas about the associations between different operations and problem types. For example, in many U.S. textbooks, fraction problems with the same denominators usually ask for addition or subtraction, while fraction problems with different denominators usually ask for multiplication or division. This pattern can confuse students into believing that certain operations always match certain types of fraction problems. Our research shows that textbooks strongly influence how children learn math, and that it is important for them to include a balanced mix of problems so students develop accurate and flexible math skills.
Recent papers:
Integrated Number Sense
Integrated number sense is the ability to understand and compare rational number magnitudes across different notations, including fractions, decimals, and percentages. Our research with students from middle school through college shows that being able to switch easily between these forms predicts math success better than just knowing one form well. This skill is linked to better estimates of fraction sizes, more accurate arithmetic, and higher scores on standardized tests. Moreover, our intervention studies suggest that this critical skill can be effectively improved through targeted instructional approaches
Graph Comprehension
Our research explores how adults and children read and understand graphs. Through a series of studies, we have demonstrated that many textbooks and other sources often use the same types of images and features in their graphs. Because of this, people may have trouble understanding graphs that look different or show less common information. Our findings highlight the critical role of graph design and representation in shaping data literacy and underscore the need for more balanced graph usage in educational contexts.
