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Title: Balancing teachers’ needs in times of crisis: investigating how computer science instructional coaches and teachers navigated remote professional development during COVID-19
This study investigated how Chicago Public Schools (CPS) computer science (CS) teachers and instructional coaches navigated remote professional development (PD) during the pandemic. Analyzing multiple sources of qualitative data, we explored how coaches adapted PD to address teachers’ unique needs and how teachers experienced remote PD. We found that the coaching team designed PD to help teachers translate key instructional strategies into the remote learning environment and increasingly centered their PD design efforts on improving teacher engagement and wellbeing. Teachers primarily valued the relational aspects of PD, including opportunities for collaboration and personalized support from instructional coaches. Leveraging an ecological framework, we found that the pandemic and remote learning contexts amplified preexisting PD challenges experienced by teachers and coaches. Findings suggest that PD researchers and designers should focus on teacher wellbeing and that districts should invest in flexible and adaptable PD structures to meet CS teachers’ varied needs.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2034145 1738572
PAR ID:
10547025
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Taylor and Francis
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Computer Science Education
ISSN:
0899-3408
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1 to 33
Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
Exploring computer science professional development instructional coaching COVID-19 teacher wellbeing qualitative methods
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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