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1. Developing Empathy and Persistence through Professional Development in New to CSA Teachers

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3446871.3469793  

   Broneak, Cassandra ; Rosato, Jennifer ( August 2021 , ICER 2021: Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research)

   null (Ed.)

   To meet the rising demand for computer science (CS) courses, K-12 educators need to be prepared to teach introductory concepts and skills in courses such as Computer Science Principles (CSP), which takes a breadth-first approach to CS and includes topics beyond programming such as data, impacts of computing, and networks. Educators are now also being asked to teach more advanced concepts in courses such as the College Board's Advanced Placement Computer Science A (CSA) course, which focuses on advanced programming using Java and includes topics such as objects, inheritance, arrays, and recursion. Traditional CSA curricula have not used content or pedagogy designed to engage a broad range of learners and support their success. Unlike CSP, which is attracting more underrepresented students to computing as it was designed, CSA continues to enroll mostly male, white, and Asian students [College Board 2019, Ericson 2020, Sax 2020]. In order to expand CS education opportunities, it is crucial that students have an engaging experience in CSA similar to CSP. Well-designed differentiated professional development (PD) that focuses on content and pedagogy is necessary to meet individual teacher needs, to successfully build teacher skills and confidence to teach CSA, and to improve engagement with students [Darling-Hammond 2017]. It is critical that as more CS opportunities and courses are developed, teachers remain engaged with their own learning in order to build their content knowledge and refine their teaching practice [CSTA 2020]. CSAwesome, developed and piloted in 2019, offers a College Board endorsed AP CSA curriculum and PD focused on supporting the transition of teachers and students from CSP to CSA. This poster presents preliminary findings aimed at exploring the supports and challenges new-to-CSA high school level educators face when transitioning from teaching an introductory, breadth-first course such as CSP to teaching the more challenging, programming-focused CSA course. Five teachers who completed the online CSAwesome summer 2020 PD completed interviews in spring 2021. The project employed an inductive coding scheme to analyze interview transcriptions and qualitative notes from teachers about their experiences learning, teaching, and implementing CSP and CSA curricula. Initial findings suggest that teachers’ experience in the CSAwesome PD may improve their confidence in teaching CSA, ability to effectively use inclusive teaching practices, ability to empathize with their students, problem-solving skills, and motivation to persist when faced with challenges and difficulties. Teachers noted how the CSAwesome PD provided them with a student perspective and increased feelings of empathy. Participants spoke about the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on their own learning, student learning, and teaching style. Teachers enter the PD with many different backgrounds, CS experience levels, and strengths, however, new-to-CSA teachers require further PD on content and pedagogy to transition between CSP and CSA. Initial results suggest that the CSAwesome PD may have an impact on long-term teacher development as new-to-CSA teachers who participated indicated a positive impact on their teaching practices, ideologies, and pedagogies. 

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2. On the Development of Cybersecurity and Computing Centric Professional Developments and the Subsequent Implementation of Topics in K12 Lesson Plans (RTP)

   Robins, Andey ; Burrows, Andrea C. ; Borowczak, Mike ( August 2022 , ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   In recent years, Wyoming has developed Computer Science (CS) standards for adoption and use within K-12 classrooms. These standards, adopted in January of 2022, go into effect for the 2022-2023 school year. The University of Wyoming has offered two different computer science week-long professional developments for teachers. Many K-12 teachers do not have a CS background, so developing CS lessons plans can be a challenge in these PDs.This research study is centered around three central questions: 1) To what extent did K-12 teachers integrate computing topics into their PD created lesson plans; 2) How do the teacher perceptions from the two CS PDs compare to each other; and 3) How was the CS PD translated to classroom activity? The first PD opportunity (n=14), was designed to give hands-on learning with CS topics focused on cybersecurity. The second PD opportunity (n=28), focused on integrating CS into existing curricula. At the end of each of these PDs, teacher K-12 teachers incorporated CS topics into their selected existing lesson plan(s). Additionally, a support network was implemented to support excellence in CS education throughout the state. This research study team evaluated the lesson plans developed during each PD event, by using a rubric on each lesson plan. Researchers collected exit surveys from the teachers. Implementation metrics were also gathered, including, how long each lesson lasted, how many students were involved in the implementation, what grades the student belonged to, the basic demographics of the students, the type of course the lesson plan was housed in, if the K-12 teacher reached their intended purpose, what evidence the K-12 teacher had of the success of their lesson plan, data summaries based on supplied evidence, how the K-12 teachers would change the lesson, the challenges and successes they experienced, and samples of student work. Quantitative analysis was basic descriptive statistics. Findings, based on evaluation of 40+ lessons, taught to over 1500 K-12 students, indicate that when assessed on a three point rubric of struggling, emerging, or excellent - certain components (e.g., organization, objectives, integration, activities & assessment, questions, and catch) of K-12 teacher created lessons plans varied drastically. In particular, lesson plan organization, integration, and questions each had a significant number of submissions which were evaluated as "struggling" [45%, 46%, 41%] through interesting integration, objectives, activities & assessment, and catch all saw submissions which were evaluated as "excellent" [43%, 48%, 43%, 48%]. The relationship between existing K-12 policies and expectations surfaces within these results and in combination with other findings leads to implications for the translation of current research practices into pre-collegiate PDs. 

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3. Implementation of Security Modules with Model-Eliciting Activities in Computer Science Courses

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--34776  

   Yang, Jeong ; Earwood, Brandon ; Kim, Young Rae ; Lodgher, Akhtar ( June 2020 , 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference)

   Security is a critical aspect in the design, development, and testing of software systems. Due to the increasing need for security-related skills within software systems and engineering, there is a growing demand for these skills to be taught at the university level. A series of 41 security modules was developed to assess the impact of these modules on teaching critical cyber security topics to students. This paper presents the implementation and outcomes of the first set of six security modules in a Freshman level course. This set consists of five modules presented in lectures as well as a sixth module emphasizing encryption and decryption used as the semester project for the course. Each module is a collection of concepts related to cyber security. The individual cyber security concepts are presented with a general description of a security issue to avoid, sample code with the security issue written in the Java programming language, and a second version of the code with an effective solution. The set of these modules was implemented in Computer Science I during the Fall 2019 semester. Incorporating each of the concepts in these modules into lectures depends on both the topic covered and the approach to resolving the related security issue. Students were introduced to computing concepts related to both the security issue and the appropriate solution to fully grasp the overall concept. After presenting the materials to students, continual review with students is also essential. This reviewal process requires exploring use-cases for the programming mechanisms presented as solutions to the security issues discussed. In addition to the security modules presented in lectures, students were given a hands-on approach to understanding the concepts through Model-Eliciting Activities (MEAs). MEAs are open-ended, problem-solving activities in which groups of three to four students work to solve realistic complex problems in a classroom setting. The semester project related to encryption and decryption was implemented into the course as an MEA. To assess the effectiveness of incorporating security modules with the MEA project into the curriculum of Computer Science I, two sections of the course were used as a control group and a treatment group. The treatment group included the security modules in lectures and the MEA project while the control group did not. To measure the overall effectiveness of incorporating security modules with the MEA project, both the instructor’s effectiveness as well as the student’s attitudes and interest were measured. For instructors, the primary question to address was to what extent do instructors change their attitudes towards student learning and their teaching practices because of the implementation of cyber security modules through MEAs. For students, the primary question to address was how the inclusion of security modules with the MEA project improved their understanding of the course materials and their interests in computer science. After implementing security modules with the MEA project, students showed a better understanding of cyber security concepts and a greater interest in broader computer science concepts. The instructor’s beliefs about teaching, learning, and assessment shifted from teacher-centered to student-centered, during his experience with the security modules and MEA. 

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4. Self-Efficacy Study in Computing Among College Freshmen

   Ghimire, Amrita ; Lee, S. ; Lineberry, L. ( July 2020 , ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   Computer Science (CS) is not introduced equitably across K-12 schools, yet it is increasingly a necessary skill regardless of vocational pathway. Co-curricular activities such as summer camps have become a popular way to introduce CS to K-12 students. Researchers at our institution, through partnerships with other educational institutions and practitioners, developed a transdisciplinary approach of teaching CS in K-12 informal learning environments. Building on positive results in the K-12 informal learning environment, researchers are exploring the applicability of the transdisciplinary modules in formal instruction for early college learners in CS0 and CS1 courses. This paper explores self-efficacy data collected from multiple CS0 and CS1 courses. Learners include freshmen in computing majors and in non-computing majors. We compare their self efficacy growth in computing across race and gender, considering their formal or informal CS education experiences prior to entering college. This work is a part of a larger effort to redesign CS0 and CS1 courses to introduce more complex concepts and important design concepts such as parallel and distributed computing earlier in the curriculum. The authors’ longer-term goal is to investigate active learning strategies that will introduce higher level computer science topics early in the curriculum to enable students to recognize content applicability earlier in their college pathway. 

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5. A Pre-service Pathway for Preparing Future AP CS Principles Teachers

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3328778.3366945  

   Gray, Jeff ; Odom-Bartel, Rebecca ; Zelkowski, Jeremy ; Hamner, Karl ; Rodgers-Farris, Sierra ( February 2020 , ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGSCE))

   null (Ed.)

   The surge of interest in K-12 computer science (CS) over the past decade has led to a deep need for a corresponding expansion of trained teachers. The primary focus of most K-12 CS teacher professional development has been for current in-service teachers who have little background in CS. To raise the importance of CS within Colleges of Education, we believe that new pathways and experiences are needed for pre-service Education majors to learn more about authentic CS topics and pedagogy. This experience report summarizes our efforts over the past two years to prepare Secondary Math Education (SEMA) majors to teach AP CS Principles (AP CSP). Our approach consists of the following curricular activities: 1) a two-course sequence, with the first course mapping to the content topics of the AP CSP Curriculum Framework, and the second course consisting of a reflection of CS methods and pedagogy, including opportunities for SEMA students to develop and present their own AP CSP lesson plans; 2) opportunities for SEMA students to observe AP CSP classrooms in local high schools through our partnership with experienced AP CSP teachers; 3) summer participation in a College Board AP Summer Institute for AP CSP, and 4) a six-week ETS Praxis CS preparation modules-based course, offered to both pre-service SEMA students and in-service teachers. We summarize our lessons learned and present results that suggest our approach is preparing pre-service students with pedagogical and content knowledge that meets or exceeds current in-service training models (including an analysis of recent Praxis results for CS certification in our state). 

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