Teaching for a Data-Driven Future: Intentionally Building Foundational Computing Skills

Abstract

Despite the centrality of data analysis to the discipline, sociology departments are currently falling short of teaching both undergraduate and graduate students crucial computing and statistical software skills. We argue that sociology instructors must intentionally and explicitly teach computing skills alongside statistical concepts to prepare their students for participation in a data-driven world. We illuminate foundational concepts for computing in the social sciences and provide easy-to-integrate recommendations for building competency with these concepts in the form of a workshop designed to introduce sociology undergraduate and graduate students to the logic of statistical software. We use our workshop to show that students appreciate and gain confidence from being taught how to think about computing.