Data Science Landscape in Preservice Teacher Education

Abstract

Tangential to the efforts to bring computer science (CS) into K-12 education, there has been increasing recognition of the critical role of data science (DS) in preparing future citizens to be able to gather, analyze, and represent data. With only 51% of K-12 schools offering CS, however, and the critical need for students to engage in DS practices, there is the need to examine ways to integrate DS in other subjects. Our study explores the current landscape of DS in methods and content courses within preservice teacher pathways. This poster outlines a study in its preliminary stages that explores how faculty teaching math, science, and social studies methods and content courses in colleges of education: a) define DS, b) conceptualize DS as related to their course content, c) make connections between DS, CS, and/or computational thinking (CT). Taking a participatory design approach, this study will also explore research-based approaches to building the capacity of preservice faculty in DS to advance the practice of teaching CS in a scalable way to expand access in equitable ways to CS and CT.