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1. TIPP&SEE: A Previewing & Navigating Strategy for Use/Modify Scratch Activities

   Franklin, D. (April 2020, Presentation at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association)

   With many school districts nationwide integrating Computer Science (CS) and Computational Thinking (CT) instruction at the K-8 level, it is crucial that CS instruction be eective for diverse learners. A popular pedagogical approach is Use!Modify!Create, which introduces a concept through a more scaolded, guided instruction before culminating in a more open-ended project for student engagement. Yet, little research has gone into strategies that increase learning during the Use!Modify step. This paper introduces TIPP&SEE, a learning that further scaolds student learning during this step. Results from a quasi-experimental study show statistically-signi cant outperformance from students using the TIPP&SEE strategy on all assessment questions of medium and hard difficulty, suggesting its potential as an eective CS learning strategy 

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2. "Making" Science Relevant for the 21st Century: Early Lessons from a Research-Practice Partnership

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3311890.3311910  

   Fancsali, Cheri; Mirakhur, Zitsi; Klevan, Sarah; Rivera-Cash, Edgar (March 2019, FabLearn 2019 proceedings)

   The Maker Partnership Program (MPP) is an NSF-supported project that addresses the critical need for models of professional development (PD) and support that help elementary-level science teachers integrate computer science and computational thinking (CS and CT) into their classroom practices. The MPP aims to foster integration of these disciplines through maker pedagogy and curriculum. The MPP was designed as a research-practice partnership that allows researchers and practitioners to collaborate and iteratively design, implement and test the PD and curriculum. This paper describes the key elements of the MPP and early findings from surveys of teachers and students participating in the program. Our research focuses on learning how to develop teachers’ capacity to integrate CS and CT into elementary-level science instruction; understanding whether and how this integrated instruction promotes deeper student learning of science, CS and CT, as well as interest and engagement in these subjects; and exploring how the model may need to be adapted to fit local contexts. Participating teachers reported gaining knowledge and confidence for implementing the maker curriculum through the PDs. They anticipated that the greatest implementation challenges would be lack of preparation time, inaccessible computer hardware, lack of administrative support, and a lack of CS knowledge. Student survey results show that most participants were interested in CS and science at the beginning of the program. Student responses to questions about their disposition toward collaboration and persistence suggest some room for growth. Student responses to questions about who does CS are consistent with prevalent gender stereotypes (e.g., boys are naturally better than girls at computer programming), particularly among boys. 

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3. Using Computational Thinking to Demystify Computer Science for Elementary Teachers

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3626253.3631658  

   Levitt, Diane; Garfus-Knowles, Dylana; Khuu, Wyman; Siddappa, Sara (March 2024, ACM)

   The computer science education research community has thought deeply about how students learn computational thinking (CT) as it relates to other domains of computer science (CS; e.g. programming) and core content areas (STEM, humanities), but less work has examined the role of CT in pathways to computer science for K-5 teachers. This panel examines the experiences of practitioners – educators, administrators, and curriculum designers--who have both experienced and supported others in incorporating CT in elementary school settings as a pathway to or component of computer science education. All panelists have worked with teachers not previously trained to teach CS and have encountered the many opportunities and difficulties of bringing CS to in-service teachers. They will reflect on the multiple ways educators grapple with CT: as an entry point to computer science, as a way to enrich core disciplines, and as a way to support equitable practice – for example, several of the panelists have experiences leveraging CT and other domains of CS to support the expression and development of emergent bilingual students. The panel will explore ways in which CT and its associated language and strategies for problem solving may provide a particularly helpful onramp to CS generally, including integration with other disciplines and with language about academic skills more generally. 

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4. A case study of the integration of culturally relevant computer science: The planning practices of elementary teachers in a research-practice partnership.

   Lilly, S; Bredder, E; Crowder, A; Chiu, J_L (June 2025, Proceedings of the 19th International Conference of the Learning Sciences – ICLS 2025)

   Rajala, A; Cortez, A; Hofmann, R; Jornet, A; Lotz-Sisitka, J; Markauskaite, L (Ed.)

   An often overlooked but important component of understanding how to support teachers to enact computer science (CS) instruction is investigating how they plan CS activities. This study investigates how teachers in a research-practice partnership (RPP) report planning to integrate culturally relevant CS into their lessons. Teachers were interviewed about how they planned lessons to implement culturally relevant CS in their classrooms. Researchers analyzed the interviews using a framework of persistent challenges that teachers confront when planning and enacting instruction. Findings include that teachers were capable of anticipating and overcoming challenges of supporting students with basic technology skills. However, results also highlight that teachers planning CS instruction may need additional support to anticipate ways to assess student thinking, strategies for managing student behavior, and to develop and reach their personal goals for implementing culturally relevant CS lessons. 

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5. Preparing Special Education Preservice Teachers to Teach Computational Thinking and Computer Science in Mathematics

   https://doi.org/10.1177/0888406421992376  

   Bouck, Emily C.; Sands, Phil; Long, Holly; Yadav, Aman (August 2021, Teacher Education and Special Education: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children)

   Increasingly in K–12 schools, students are gaining access to computational thinking (CT) and computer science (CS). This access, however, is not always extended to students with disabilities. One way to increase CT and CS (CT/CS) exposure for students with disabilities is through preparing special education teachers to do so. In this study, researchers explore exposing special education preservice teachers to the ideas of CT/CS in the context of a mathematics methods course for students with disabilities or those at risk of disability. Through analyzing lesson plans and reflections from 31 preservice special education teachers, the researchers learned that overall emerging promise exists with regard to the limited exposure of preservice special education teachers to CT/CS in mathematics. Specifically, preservice teachers demonstrated the ability to include CT/CS in math lesson plans and showed understanding of how CT/CS might enhance instruction with students with disabilities via reflections on these lessons. The researchers, however, also found a need for increased experiences and opportunities for preservice special education teachers with CT/CS to more positively impact access for students with disabilities. 

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