(M5.1) “Wait…That Graph Looks Off”: Teaching Students to Spot Misleading Graphs in Media

 “Wait…That Graph Looks Off”: Teaching Students to Spot Misleading Graphs in Media

Not long ago, I was scrolling through social media when I came across a post that claimed a certain product was “the fastest growing in history.” Below it was a bold, colorful graph with skyrocketing bars that looked pretty convincing, until I noticed, the y-axis started at 90 instead of zero. The data was not technically wrong, but it was definitely distorted. The more I paid attention, the more I realized how often these kinds of visual tricks show up, in news articles, advertisements, political campaigns, and everyday social media. 

That moment stuck with me, it made me think: If I almost took that graph at face value, what are my students seeing and believing every day, and it is exactly why I chose this as my topic: How can we teach students to spot misleading graphs in the media, and what math skills do they need to do it?

Why This Matters to Me as a Math Teacher

We teach students how to create bar graphs, line plots, scatterplots… but we do not always teach them to question the graphs they see in the real world, and that is a problem. Graphs have become one of the most common ways information is shared, and yet they can be one of the easiest ways to manipulate data without saying anything untrue. 

By making space for this in the math classroom, we help students move from simply doing math to using it to think critically about the world around them. I want my students to feel like they can say “That chart doesn’t tell the whole story,” or “Why did they choose those numbers?” It can be extremely empowering. 

This also feels like a way to make math more engaging, especially for students who love to ask, “When am I ever going to use this?” Here is the answer I want to begin to share: “You are going to use this every time someone tries to use numbers to convince you of something.”

What This Could Look Like in Practice

Incorporating this into my teaching could mean:

• Showing students real-world examples of misleading graphs and asking them to identify what is wrong

• Having students create fixed versions that are more accurate and honest

• Exploring the small design choices (like axis scale or graph type) that can completely change how we interpret data

• Connecting math to media literacy, civic awareness, and critical thinking

Annotated Bibliography: Spotting Misleading Graphs

Here are five peer-reviewed articles I found that help me better understand how to bring this idea to life in the classroom, and why it is important:

1. Brückner, S., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Küchemann, S., Klein, P., & Kuhn, J. (2020). Changes in Students’ Understanding of and Visual Attention on Digitally Represented Graphs Across Two Domains in Higher Education: A Postreplication Study. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. PubMedCentral. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02090. This study explores how university students studying physics and economics develop their skills in interpreting digital graphs over a semester. Using eye-tracking technology, the researchers gained insight into where students focus their attention when working with graphs. They found that students from different fields approach graph reading differently. For instance, physics students tend to feel more confident about their graph skills, although their actual perforamnce sometimes told a different story. The study highlights how important it is to consider the subject area and context when teaching graph literacy, rather than assuming one method fits all. For educators, these findings suggest that tailored teaching strategies can better support students in becoming more confident and accurate in reading graphs.

2. Durand, M.-A., Yen, R. W., O’Malley, J., Elwyn, G., & Mancini, J. (2020). Graph literacy matters: Examining the association between graph literacy, health literacy, and numeracy in a Medicaid eligible population. PLOS ONE, 15(11), e0241844. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241844. This study explored how well people eligible for Medicaid—who often face challenges with education and income—understand graphs, health information, and numbers. After surveying 436 participants, the researchers found that many struggled with interpreting graphs, scoring quite low on average. They discovered that graph literacy was the most important factor in how well participants understood the health information they received. The study also found a connection between graph literacy and numeracy (comfort with numbers), with numeracy influenced by factors like gender, education, and health literacy. When it came to how the information was shown, participants preferred tables the most and found them easiest to understand, followed by bar graphs. Icon arrays were the least popular and hardest to follow. These results suggest that relying only on graphs to communicate health information might not work well for groups with lower education levels. It points to the need for careful design of health materials and more research on how to best present this important information.

3. Monteiro, C., & Ainley, J. (2007). Investigating the Interpretation of Media Graphs among Student Teachers. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 2(3), 187–207. ProQuest. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/183. This article explores how student teachers understand graphs they see in the media. The author found that these future teachers don’t just rely on their math skills, they also use their own experiences and knowledge about the world to make sense of the data. The idea of “critical sense” comes up a lot here, meaning that good graph interpretation involves balancing numbers, context, and personal insight. Even though the participatns came from different countries and backgrounds, their ways of thinking about the graphs were surprisingly similar. The study also highlights that typical teaching often separates stats from real-world context, which can make it harder for teachers to grasp how complex interpreting graphs really is. This article is a great reminder that teaching future educators to look beyond the numbers can help them, and their studennts become better critical thinkers when it comes to data. .

4. Olande, O. (2013). Making sense of a ”misleading” graph. NOMAD Nordic Studies in Mathematics Education, 18(1). ResearchGate. https://doi.org/10.7146/nomad.v18i1.148495. This article takes a close look at how students interact with graphs that can be misleading, like the ones we often see in news stories or everyday life. Olande found that many students tend to focus on how the graph looks rather than really understanding the numbers and math behind it. Instead of critically analyzing the data, they often rely on familiar patterns or “standard” ways of reading graphs. The study also points out that when a graph’s topic feels personal or emotional, students sometimes lose sight of the math they are supposed to be doing. The big takeaway is that teachers should help students develop a more critical eye when working with graphs, encouraging them to ask questions, think deeply, and clearly explain their reasoning instead of just going by appearances. .

5. Zucker, A., Staudt, C., & Tinker, R. (2015). Teaching Graph Literacy Across the Curriculum. Science Scope, 38(6), 19–24. JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.2307/43691230. This article talks about why it is important for students to really understand graphs, not just in math class, but in subjects like science and English too. With common core standards, teachers across different subjects now share the job of helping students read graphs alongside text. The authors explain that many students struggle with basic graph skills, like reading axes or spotting trends, which can make learning harder and limit how they understand real-world information. To tackle this, they suggest a clear three-step approach: first, help students notice and name parts of a graph (like the title or labels); second, show how those parts relate to what the graph is telling us (like if something’s going up or down); and third, connect everything back to the real situation the graph is about. They have even developed free software tools to make this earlier for teachers and students. Overall, the article offers helpful ideas for teaching graph skills that students will need not just in school, but in everyday life.