A Constructivism-based Approach to Treemap Literacy in the Classroom

Abstract

Treemaps are a popular representation to show hierarchical as well as part-to-whole relationships in data. While most students are aware of node-link representations / network diagrams based on their K-12 education, treemaps are often a novel representation to them. We present our experience of developing a software using principles from constructivism to help students understand treemaps using linked, side-by-side views of a node-link diagram and a treemap of the same data. Based on the qualitative survey conducted at the end of the intervention, students found the linked views to be beneficial for understanding hierarchical representation of data using treemaps.