Bridging STEM and the Civic Mission of Social Studies: Integrating Spatial Reasoning & Computational Thinking Into Decision-Focused Secondary Social Studies Instruction
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Thomas Hammond, Julia Oltman, Lehigh University, United States
Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference, in Las Vegas, NV, United States ISBN 978-1-939797-37-7 Publisher: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), Waynesville, NC USA
Abstract
Social studies has faced a crisis of relevancy, particularly in the ascendance of perceived high-value fields such as STEM. Furthermore, secondary social studies has struggled to reconcile the disciplinary organization of social studies curriculum (history, geography, economics, and civics) with the central mission of social studies, citizenship preparation. We suggest a new framework for bridging both of these divides, adding value to both social studies and STEM education. From the social studies literature, we adopt Engle’s decision-focused approach to social studies education; from the emerging literature on STEM skills, we adopt spatial reasoning and computational thinking as highly relevant skills to social studies, and particularly a decision-focused approach. Illustrative examples are provided, and implications for teacher education are discussed.
Citation
Hammond, T. & Oltman, J. (2019). Bridging STEM and the Civic Mission of Social Studies: Integrating Spatial Reasoning & Computational Thinking Into Decision-Focused Secondary Social Studies Instruction. In K. Graziano (Ed.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 2359-2363). Las Vegas, NV, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved February 26, 2021 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/207979/.
© 2019 Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)
References
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- Engle, S.H. (1960). Decision making: The heart of social studies instruction. Social Education, 24, 301-306.
- National Research Council. (2006). Learning to think spatially: GIS as a support system in the K-12 curriculum. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
- Wing, J.M. (2006) Computational thinking. Communications of the ACM, 49, 33-35.
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