The Adapt, Implement, and Research at Nebraska (AIR@NE) project, funded by the NSF CSforAll Researcher-Practitioner Partnership (RPP) program, examines the adaptation of a validated K-8 Computer Science (CS) curriculum in diverse school districts statewide. Our Research-Practitioner Partnership is primarily between the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the Lincoln Public Schools, and other diverse school districts across Nebraska. Our primary goal is to study and document how different districts, including rural, predominantly minority, and Native American reservation, adopt the curriculum and broaden participation in CS. In addition, the project is developing instructional capacity for K-8 CS education with diverse learners. Our research also adapts and develops teacher and student CS assessments, and documents case studies using design-based research methodology to show how an adaptive curriculum broadens CS participation.
Our Professional Development (PD) program for K-8 CS teachers is comprehensive. It consists of three summer courses for each cohort and a series of workshops during the academic year. Of the three summer courses, two are administered in the first year for a cohort: (1) an introduction to computer science course where teachers learn fundamental CS topics and programming in a high-level programming language (e.g., Python), and engage in problem solving and practice computational thinking, and (2) a course in pedagogy for teachers to learn how to teach K-8 CS, including lesson designs, use of instructional resources such as dot-and-dash robots, and assessments. Then, the following academic year after the summer, the PD program holds a series of workshops on five separate Saturdays to support teacher implementation of their lesson modules during the academic year, reflect and improve on their lessons, reinforce on CS concepts and pedagogy techniques, review and adopt alternative instructional resources, and share insights. These Saturday workshops also facilitate further community building and resource sharing. The third course occurs in the second year for a cohort, involving dissemination of research results from the team to the teachers, opportunities to discuss new resources and approaches on teaching CS concepts and computational thinking, and sharing of experiences and insights after teachers have completed one academic year of teaching CS. Unlike the first two courses that are required of teachers, this third course is an opt-in course that combines more in- depth pedagogy and elements of leadership. Thus far, we have had two cohorts and used the design methodology to revise our PD program, making our design more robust based on the lessons learned over the two years. The course materials, assessment, and survey instruments have also been improved.
While the project is on-going we have data to that indicates the impact of the work so far. There were significant pre-post gains for both cohorts in teachers’ knowledge of computer science concepts and computational thinking. Scores on the computational thinking assessment were higher than those for CS concepts, which was to be expected given their CS teaching experience. Moreover, in both cohorts, the teachers’ confidence in teaching CS improved significantly.
more »
« less
SWOT Analysis of Two Different Designs of Summer Professional Development Institutes for K-8 CS Teachers
Increasingly professional development (PD) programs have been designed and implemented for pre-service and in-service teachers to acquire CS content knowledge and CS pedagogy
and instructional strategies for K-12 students. This paper reports on our adaptation, implementation and research program for K-8 CS teachers across a Midwestern state. More specifically, its PD program for K-8 CS teachers consists of a summer institute with two graduate courses and a series of Saturday workshops during the subsequent academic year. This paper focuses on the two summer courses: one on CS knowledge content including computational thinking, variables, conditionals, loops, arrays, functions, and algorithms, and one instructional strategies, student pedagogy, computer-aided education resources, and community building. We report our SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the two summer institutes involving the two courses to identify what went well and what needed improvement. This paper also reviews best practices for summer PD.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1837476
- PAR ID:
- 10545538
- Publisher / Repository:
- IEEE
- Date Published:
- ISBN:
- 978-1-6654-3851-3
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1-9
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Lincoln, NE, USA
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Elementary schools provide a natural entry point to computer science (CS) education, yet elementary teachers spend most of their instructional time in literacy and math. One way to bring CS in elementary schools is through integrated approaches. In this work we present a professional development (PD) program that helps elementary teachers integrate CS with content and culturally relevant pedagogy to create accessible CS instruction. Qualitative data were collected from five teachers who attended the year-long program. Findings indicate that all teachers fully integrated CS with content and culturally-relevant pedagogy; however, such integration focused mostly on literacy and closely paralleled what was presented in PD. Implications are drawn regarding the design of PD programs that help teachers integrate CS in elementary classrooms.more » « less
-
Marks, G. H. ; Schmidt-Crawford, D. (Ed.)The growing interest in offering computer science (CS) in public schools has illuminated the need for more trained K-8 educators. This paper provides initial evidence that carefully structured professional development (PD) that focuses both on CS skills/concepts and pedagogy can successfully impact teacher outcomes. Testing before and after the summer PD showed significant increases in teachers’ knowledge of CS concepts and computational thinking, as well as confidence in their CS skills and pedagogy. The only moderating effect was for rural versus urban differences in CS confidence.more » « less
-
Preparing Pre-Service Teacher Candidates for the Praxis Exam: An Innovative Model of Blended Supportnull (Ed.)The expansion of K-12 computer science (CS) has driven a dramatic need for educators who are trained in CS content and pedagogy [1]. This poster describes our effort to train teacher candidates (i.e., pre-service teachers who are students seeking degrees within a College of Education), who are specializing in secondary mathematics education, to be future CS educators. We specifically describe our collaboration to provide a blended preparatory six-week training for the ETS CS Praxis exam (5652), assisting our pre-service students in satisfying the CS certification requirements in our state before they graduate and begin their professional teaching career. Given the unique challenges of pre-service CS teacher preparation [2], blended models, which combine both in-person and online instruction, are an effective approach to building a pre-service program. Within our pre-service CS program, students first complete a two-course pathway that prepares them in AP CSP content and pedagogy experiences, including observations in local AP CSP classrooms [3]. After completing the two courses, our students participate in the blended version of the WeTeach_CS Praxis preparation course to achieve certification. The in-person support provided by the blended model contributed significantly to certification success in this project. With a cut-score of 149 for the Praxis exam, all 11 of our pre-service students who completed the course received a passing score (including one student with a perfect score of 200, and another student with a 195); the average score for our pre-service students was 175. An additional 11 in-service teachers, with diverse backgrounds in CS content knowledge, also participated in the blended Praxis preparation course, with an average score of 166. Given the unique challenges of pre-service CS teacher preparation, university pre-service CS teacher programs should look to innovative models of teacher support developed by in-service programs to make substantial gains in CS teacher certification. Incorporating an asynchronous online course that allows teachers with a wide range of prior experience in CS to learn at their own pace with in-person coursework and support appears to be a viable model for assisting non-CS major teacher candidates in achieving a CS certification. With the blended model, even teachers with no background knowledge in CS were successful. Within our pre-service CS program, students first complete a two-course pathway that prepares them in AP CSP content and pedagogy experiences, including observations in local AP CSP classrooms [3]. After completing the two courses, our students participate in the blended version of the WeTeach_CS Praxis preparation course to achieve certification. The in-person support provided by the blended model contributed significantly to certification success in this project. With a cut-score of 149 for the Praxis exam, all 11 of our pre-service students who completed the course received a passing score (including one student with a perfect score of 200, and another student with a 195); the average score for our pre-service students was 175. An additional 11 in-service teachers, with diverse backgrounds in CS content knowledge, also participated in the blended Praxis preparation course, with an average score of 166. Incorporating an asynchronous online course that allows teachers with a wide range of prior experience in CS to learn at their own pace with in-person coursework and support appears to be a viable model for assisting non-CS major teacher candidates in achieving a CS certification. With the blended model, even teachers with no background knowledge in CS were successful.more » « less
-
Broadening participation in computer science (CS) for primary/elementary students is a growing movement, spurred by computing workforce demands and the need for younger students to develop skills in problem solving and critical/computational thinking. However, offering computer science instruction at this level is directly related to the availability of teachers prepared to teach the subject. Unfortunately, there are relatively few primary/elementary school teachers who have received formal training in computer science, and they often self-report a lack of CS subject matter expertise. Teacher development is a key factor to address these issues, and this paper describes professional development strategies and empirical impacts of a summer institute that included two graduate courses and a series of Saturday workshops during the subsequent academic year. Key elements included teaching a high-level programing language (Python and JavaScript), integrating CS content and pedagogy instruction, and involving both experienced K-12 CS teachers and University faculty as instructors. Empirical results showed that this carefully structured PD that incorporated evidence-based elements of sufficient duration, teacher active learning and collaboration, modeling, practice, and feedback can successfully impact teacher outcomes. Results showed significant gains in teacher CS knowledge (both pedagogy and content), self-efficacy, and perception of CS value. Moderating results - examining possible differential effects depending on teacher gender, years of teaching CS, and geographic locale - showed that the PD was successful with experienced and less experienced teachers, with teachers from both rural and urban locales, and with both males and females.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE49875.2021.9637451
