Puzzling Over Patterns

Abstract

Social scientists in the United States face impacts of legislative attacks on critical thinking in classrooms from K-12 through college. Reduction and removal of content and pedagogy designed to develop and discuss critical thinking present challenges for anthropologists by increasing inequality in access and engagement for learners at all levels. Community engagement and creative problem solving can inform the development of learning opportunities for people who process and approaching complex problems differently. Puzzling, when used in learning processes, can increase inclusivity to facilitate learning data analysis skills with different types of learners. Activities like these allow for involvement in analysis and interpretation of data and add to anthropologists’ toolkits to learn, systematize, explain, and use social science informed knowledge.