It’s Hard Because I Don’t Know Anything about It”: Second Graders’ Understanding of Visual Graphics in Science

Using a verbal protocol, this study investigated how 38 second-grade students identify, describe, and interpret five types of commonly used visual graphics in science texts (i.e., cut-away diagrams, maps, captioned photographs, flow diagrams, and hybrids). Additionally, we explored the challenges students encountered when interpreting these visuals. Our findings demonstrated that, overall, a majority of second graders struggled to correctly name and identify the purposes of the selected visuals, with the exception of maps. Furthermore, there was significant variation in students’ interpretations of the visuals in science texts. When interpreting the visuals, students’ perceptions of the task’s difficulty level were influenced by factors such as the amount of information, overall organization, concreteness of visuals, use of visual conventions, lack of prior knowledge, and vocabulary knowledge. We recommend that classroom teachers integrate more explicit visual literacy instruction into science education, incorporating a variety of visuals.