5 Responses to “Student:staff ratios 2008-2010 graph”

1. Lawrence says:

   23 September, 2011 at 12:00 am

   No graph visible!
2. TEU says:

   23 September, 2011 at 12:04 am

   HI Lawrence – We'll try to fix that. But in the meantime, if you cannot see the graph in your web browser, try this: http://twitter.com/#!/nzteu/status/11554452595868…
3. Beatrix says:

   23 September, 2011 at 1:27 am

   I can see the graph now, but I wish I couldn't! This is one of the worst displays of data I have ever seen. The staff:student ratios are represented by the numbers of irregularly sized students… I believe that what the eye perceives, the areas occupied by the drawings, do not in fact accurately represent the numbers, and even if they did the human mind is very bad at comparing areas, particularly irregularly shaped ones. One can barely tell that the last 'heap' is the largest. One must actually count the students in each picture to get the point!

   I'm not sure how this is supposed to be more compelling than just the three numbers, 17.9, 19.2, and 19.8.
4. Erika says:

   23 September, 2011 at 3:13 am

   I agree with Beatrix — this is a very poor example of visual statistics.
5. Nigel says:

   26 September, 2011 at 8:58 pm

   I have to agree – this graphic is more confusing that informative.