ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. STEM Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1680396
A didactic intervention to strengthen critical thinking in the interpretation of visualized data
Provisionally accepted
Christiane Lieb1*
Carola Pickhardt2- 1Department of Business Science and Management, Hochschule Albstadt-Sigmaringen, Sigmaringen, Germany
- 2Department of Life Sciences, Hochschule Albstadt-Sigmaringen, Sigmaringen, Germany
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Background: Visualized data are central to economic decision-making. A key educational challenge is fostering related competencies from school to higher education. Research on cognitive competencies and their assessment in data literacy remains scarce. This study examines the effects of an eight-week intervention based on a cognitive model, aiming to enhance learners' critical engagement with and evaluation of visualized data. Methods: Using a design-based research approach, a cognitive model was implemented as an instructional intervention and iteratively refined through multiple design cycles. A pre-post comparison was conducted within the experimental group (N = 40). The model emphasizes a backward-oriented interpretation of data visualizations, guiding learners from analysis to mental reconstruction of the underlying data structure and the data collection process. To enhance acceptance, learners were involved in model development from the outset. Results: There were changes in perceived ability to critically evaluate visualized data over time (p = .011, d = 1,72). In addition, the usefulness of the intervention is evaluated positively (M = 3,76, SD = 1,09). The model underwent several rounds of revision before being implemented in the main study during the winter 2025/26 as part of a statistics course for undergraduate students. These are therefore preliminary results in the context of this study. Discussion: To our knowledge, this is the first instructional intervention based on a cognitive model to foster critical evaluation of visualized data. The backward-oriented approach guided learners' step by step – from analyzing visualizations to mentally reconstructing the underlying data structure and drawing conclusions about the data collection process. Extending the intervention duration may further enhance its effectiveness. Overall, the cognitive-model-based intervention shows potential to improve data literacy competencies in higher education.
Keywords: cognitive model, Critical Thinking, Data literacy, design-based research, didacticintervention, visualized data
Received: 05 Aug 2025; Accepted: 13 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lieb and Pickhardt. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Christiane Lieb, lieb@hs-albsig.de
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