Logical pictures in secondary economic education: textbook analysis and teacher perception

Logical pictures, such as graphs and charts are an important part of instruction, not only in economic education. Learning with these logical pictures might be beneficial under appropriate conditions, however, domain-specific and visualization-specific challenges might impede learning. In this paper, we study the use of logical pictures in secondary economic education learning material and in economics teaching. In a mixed-method approach, we first analyze 450 logical pictures and propose a category system which distinguishes between the form of a logical picture as well as its domain-specificity. In a second step, we conducted teacher interviews with economic teachers. Results show that logical pictures are used frequently in textbooks, with graphs occurring more often than charts. The interview findings support the relevance of graphs and charts for instruction and provide information about the necessary student abilities and their challenges when working with different logical pictures in economic education from the teacher’s perspective.