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Abstract In this study, support for teaching data literacy in social studies is provided through the design of a pedagogical support system informed by participatory design sessions with both pre‐service and in‐service social studies teachers. It provides instruction on teaching and learning data literacy in social studies, examples of standards‐based lesson plans, made‐to‐purpose data visualization tools and minimal manuals that put existing online tools in a social studies context. Based on case studies of eleven practicing teachers, this study provides insight into features of technology resources that social studies teachers find usable and useful for using data visualizations as part of standards‐ and inquiry‐based social studies instruction, teaching critical analysis of data visualizations and helping students create data visualizations with online computing tools. The final result, though, is that few of our participating teachers have yet adopted the provided resources into their own classrooms, which highlights weaknesses of the technology acceptance model for describing teacher adoption. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topicData literacy is an important part of social studies education in the United States.Most teachers do not teach data literacy as a part of social studies.Teachers may adopt technology to help them teach data literacy if they think it is useful and usable.What this paper addsEducational technology can help teachers learn about data literacy in social studies.Social studies teachers want simple tools that fit with their existing curricula, give them new project ideas and help students learn difficult concepts.Making tools useful and usable does not predict adoption; context plays a large role in a social studies teachers' adoption.Implications for practice and/or policyDesigning purpose‐built tools for social studies teachers will encourage them to teach data literacy in their classes.Professional learning opportunities for teachers around data literacy should include opportunities for experimentation with tools.Teachers are not likely to use tools if they are not accompanied by lesson and project ideas.
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Data Visualization Technology to Support Inquiry and Chronological Understanding in Social Studies
Data literacy, an important goal for social studies education, involves teaching students how to comprehend, analyze, interpret, evaluate, create, and argue with data and data visualizations such as timelines, maps, and graphs. Digital data visualizations support rapid inquiry and explorations that would be difficult on paper - such as adding data to an existing data visualization or creating multiple data visualizations of the same variable at multiple times or places for easy comparison. The process of asking questions and finding answers through data exploration is an important part of social studies education. While the authors recognize that there are many online data visualization tools that can be used in classrooms, they designed their tools, DV4L and Timeline Builder, specifically for use in social studies classrooms and based on feedback from prospective and current teachers. The authors have taken care to include features that teachers said would be useful in social studies data inquiry lessons and activities. These are still in a prototype phase, but are free to use and online.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2030919
- PAR ID:
- 10560596
- Publisher / Repository:
- ERIC and National Council for the Social Studies.
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Social Education
- ISSN:
- 0037-7724
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Visual Aids, Social Studies, Educational Technology, Technology Uses in Education, Teacher Attitudes, Inquiry, Data Interpretation, Teaching Methods, Opportunities, Barriers, High School Teachers
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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