Abstract
Quantitative literacy is an essential twenty-first century skill that universities are heavily invested in teaching to students. The social sciences play an important role in these efforts because they attract students who might otherwise avoid data and mathematically oriented courses and because they ground quantitative reasoning in political and social contexts that resonate with undergraduates. However, pedagogical best practices for social science instructors have been slow to emerge and the support needs of instructors and students remain difficult to discern. Ithaka S+R’s Teaching Support Services program explores the teaching practices and support needs of collegiate instructors. Our most recent project in this program, “Teaching with Data in the Social Sciences,” focused on identifying the instructional goals and practices of instructors in introductory and advanced social science courses and exploring strengths and weaknesses of existing institutional support services. As part of this study, we partnered with librarians from 20 colleges and universities in the United States, who conducted 219 interviews with social science faculty. These interviews form the basis of this report.
“Fostering Data Literacy: Teaching with Quantitative Data in the Social Sciences” explores why and how instructors teach with data, identifies the most important challenges they face, and describes how faculty and students utilize relevant campus and external resources. Full details and actionable recommendations for stakeholders are offered in the body of the report, which offers guidance to university libraries and other campus units, faculty, vendors, and others interested in improving institutional capacities to support data-intensive instruction in the social sciences.
Keywords
Cross-institutional collaboration, Libraries, Student learning and outcomes, Teaching with technology, Data literacy, Social sciences, Teaching Support Services
Disciplines
Education | Library and Information Science
Original Citation
Ruediger, D., Cooper, D. M., Bardeen, A., Baum, L., Ben-Gad, S., Bennett, S., Berger, K., . . .Yatcilla, J. (2022, September 27). Fostering Data Literacy: Teaching with Quantitative Data in the Social Sciences. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.317506
ScholarWorks Citation
Ruedinger, Dylan; Cooper, Daniella Miriam; Minnis, Samantha; and Schaub, Gayle, "Fostering Data Literacy Teaching with Quantitative Data in the Social Sciences" (2022). Scholarly Papers and Articles. 75.
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/library_sp/75
