Windows into Mathematics Teaching through Data Maps

Although perceptual inference facilitates reasoning, there has been scant attention to the use of icons in visual displays of qualitative data. This paper uses an iconic data map to provide a wholistic representation of two teachers ’ mathematics teaching and to establish similarities and differences in their practice. The map had five advantages for data display and analysis related to visual memory, strategic professional development support, the identification of anomalies, differences between espoused and enacted teaching beliefs, and the identification of further research questions. Thus, iconic data maps are a powerful tool in the display and analysis of qualitative data. Information graphics is the broad field that addresses the use of visual displays including diagrams, maps, charts, tables, graphs, and icons in print and electronic forms for the management, communication, and analysis of information (Harris, 1996). While most of these types of information graphics are widely used in data display and analysis in mathematics education research, icons have received scant attention. An icon is “a sign or representation which stands for an object by virtue of a resemblance or analogy to it” (Delbridge & Bernard, 1982, p. 475). Icons offer particular advantages over text in the display of qualitative data. They communicate concepts rapidly and effectively because they look like what they represent (Lee, 1996). Additionally, they can be used to create rich but compact displays of information because they take up less space than the equivalent words (Lee, 1996). Iconic displays are rich because they can capitalise on th