Fostering Critical and Computational Thinking in the Field of Primary and Secondary Education in non-STEM Subjects by Using Data Sets and Applications

Abstract

Critical and computational thinking in primary and secondary education in recent years shows growing importance in methodical approaches used in the classroom. Although many examples exist for using critical and computational thinking in STEM educational area, the social sciences i.e., non-STEM areas were somehow left out due to the relatively more difficult design of such content, especially in the part of the development of computational thinking. In that context, in this paper we present one way of using critical and computational thinking in non-STEM education, more specifically on the example of historical data sources, through the use of programming in Python. As an example, we use historical data for Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade routes, that were the largest long-distance coerced movement of people in history up to the mid-nineteenth century, for connecting concepts of databases, Data Science and programming for development of critical and computational thinking in context of history science. This way of using modern approaches in classroom should give teachers and pupils a broader picture of importance of interdisciplinary education for critical and computational thinking development through STEM and non-STEM classes that give pupils novel skills needed for future labor market.