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1. Advancing Opportunities for CS Teachers: How to Best Support Professional Development for Experienced Teachers in K-12 CS Education.

   Kafai, Y.B. (April 2022, Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education)

   In K-12 education, nearly all efforts focused on expanding computer science education center on the induction of new computer science teachers, with very little attention given to support the ongoing needs of experienced computer science teachers. This panel discussed the needs of experienced CS teachers from a variety of perspectives, including teacher education researchers, professional development leaders, and high school practitioners and teacher facilitators. The panel collectively outlined a research and practice agenda that focuses on supporting, retaining, and further developing experienced teachers through expanded professional development, leadership opportunities, and community for CS teachers. 

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2. Implementing Standards-Focused Professional Development for Middle School CS Teachers: An Experience Report

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3641554.3701908  

   Tate, Carol; Basu, Satabdi; Rachmatullah, Arif; Yang, Hui; Rutstein, Daisy (February 2025, ACM)

   The "Computer Science for All" initiative advocates for universal access to computer science (CS) instruction. A key strategy toward this end has been to establish CS content standards outlining what all students should have the opportunity to learn. Standards can support curriculum quality and access to quality CS instruction, but only if they are used to inform curriculum design and instructional practice. Professional learning offered to teachers of CS has typically focused on learning to implement a specific curriculum, rather than deepening understanding of CS concepts. We set out to develop a set of educative resources, formative assessment tools and teacher professional development (PD) sessions to support middle school CS teachers' knowledge of CS standards and standards-aligned formative assessment literacy. Our PD and associated resources focus on five CS standards in the Algorithm and Programming strand and are meant to support teachers using any CS curriculum or programming language. In this experience report, we share what we learned from implementing our standards-based PD with four middle school CS teachers. Teachers initially perceived standards as irrelevant to their teaching but they came to appreciate how a deeper understanding of CS concepts could enhance their instructional practice. Analysis of PD observations and exit surveys, teacher interviews, and teacher responses to a survey assessing CS pedagogical content knowledge demonstrated the complexity of using content standards as a driver of high-quality CS instruction at the middle school level, and reinforced our position that more standards-focused PD is needed. 

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3. What CS Teachers Want in a CS Professional Development Passport

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3641555.3705280  

   Tise, Joseph C; Thigpen, Laycee; McGill, Monica M; Schwarzhaupt, Robert (February 2025, ACM)

   Although there is extensive research on what makes teacher computer science (CS) professional development (PD) effective, little attention has been given to how PD providers prefer to collect and report data. A platform that met the needs of teachers while also simultaneously meeting the needs of funding bodies could be powerful in answering questions about participation and experiences in CS PD. Our research question for this study was: Which features and types of data do teachers find most important to include in a platform designed to record data related to their engagement with PD?We used an exploratory-sequential mixed methods approach that included focus groups and a survey created from an analysis of the data from the focus groups. The three most desired feature included adding information about the subject/topics targeted by the CS PD offerings for the CS PD they took, the grade levels targeted by the CS PD offering, and the number of training hours, points, and/or CEU credits earned or available to be earned by each CS PD offering taken. The three least desired features included have the capability for teachers to take notes about a CS PD, QR codes for signing up for CS PD, and capability to enter data about non-CS PDs you have completed. While we will use this data to inform the development of the platform, this study is significant as states can leverage this knowledge as they create their own systems for creating platforms for teachers within their own states. 

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4. Lessons and Challenges in Supporting CS Teachers through Local Communities: CS Teacher Leaders' Perceptions

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3545947.3576313  

   Tian, Yan; Ni, Lijun; McKlin, Tom; Baskin, Jake; Bohrer, Jason; Livingston, Matt (March 2023, SIGCSE 2023: Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education)

   Effective professional learning communities (PLCs) are important in supporting teacher learning. This study investigated computer science (CS) teacher leaders’ perspectives on the lessons and the challenges in supporting CS teachers through local PLCs. We purposefully selected ten CSTA chapters and conducted focus group interviews with the chapter leaders between 2020 and 2022. Our findings indicated that these PLCs offered social-emotional support, continual networking opportunities, and rich professional learning resources. Also, they amplified teachers’ voices and supported CS teachers’ professional identity building. To engage CS teachers, the teacher leaders built trust, collaborated with other PLCs or organizations, and set an inclusive PLC culture. These PLCs had challenges in recruitment, leadership development and transition, and building group identity. 

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5. Understanding Professional Identity of Computer Science Teachers: Design of the Computer Science Teacher Identity Survey

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3446871.3469766  

   Ni, Lijun; McKlin, Tom; Hao, Han; Baskin, Jake; Bohrer, Jason; Tian, Yan (August 2021, ICER 2021: Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research)

   null (Ed.)

   Motivation: Recent efforts to expand K-12 computer science education highlight the great need for well-prepared computer science (CS) teachers. Teacher identity theory offers a particular conceptual lens for us to understand computer science teacher preparation and professional development. The emerging literature suggests that teacher identity is central to sustaining motivation, efficacy, job satisfaction, and commitment, and these attributes are crucial in determining teacher retention. While the benefits associated with a strong sense of teacher identity are great, teachers face unique challenges and tensions in developing their professional identity for teaching computer science. Objectives: This exploratory study attempts to operationalize computer science teacher identity through discussing the potential domains, proposing and testing a quantitative instrument for assessing computer science teachers’ professional identity. Method: We first discussed the potential domains of computer science teacher identity based on recent teacher identity literature and considerations on some unique challenges for computer science teachers. Then we proposed the computer science teacher identity scale, which was piloted through a national K-12 computer science teacher survey with 3,540 completed responses. The survey results were analyzed with a series of factor analyses to test the internal structure of the computer science teacher identity scale. Results: Our analyses reveal a four-factor solution for the computer science teacher identity scale, which is composed of CS teaching commitment, CS pedagogical confidence, confidence to engage students, and sense of community/belonging. There were significant differences among the teachers with different computer science teaching experiences. In general, teachers with more computer science teaching experience had higher computer science teacher identity scores on all four factors. Discussion: The four-factor model along with a large national dataset invites a deeper analysis of the data and can provide important benchmarks. Such an instrument can be used to explore developmental patterns in computer science teacher identity, and function as a pedagogical tool to provoke discussion and reflection among teachers about their professional development. This study may also contribute to understanding computer science teachers’ professional development needs and inform efforts to prepare, develop, and retain computer science teachers. 

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