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1. Implementing Culturally Responsive Coding Projects with Indigenous Communities

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3545947.3576299  

   Rich, Kathryn M.; Bowdon, Jill; Spang, Marissa (March 2023, SIGCSE 2023: Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2)

   Doyle, Maureen; Stephenson, Ben. (Ed.)

   This study took place in the context of a researcher-practitioner partnership (RPP) between a research organization, the Wyoming Department of Education, and three school districts serving primarily Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho students on the Wind River Reservation. The goal of the RPP is to integrate instruction on the Indian Education for All Wyoming social studies standards with the Wyoming computer science standards in elementary school in ways that are culturally responsive [1]. The project team provided 12 hours of professional development across three sessions, three professional learning community sessions, lesson plans, and model projects. Teachers were expected to implement three coding projects across the school year. The study team collected data via teacher interviews, surveys, and observations of professional development and professional learning community sessions [2]. Three problems of practice that emerged from our preliminary qualitative analysis [3] include: (a) how to support student interest and engagement in computer science especially upon first introduction of a coding platform, (b) how to find time in the school day for computer science and to develop methods for integrating computer science with other subjects, and (c) how to build collaboration across classrooms and districts. The poster will discuss the adaptations teachers made to address the first two problems of practice and the RPP's strategy for addressing the third problem of practice in our next year of implementation. These findings will be of interest to researchers and practitioners working to implement culturally responsive computer science instruction in elementary schools in Indigenous communities. 

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2. Integrating computational thinking in elementary classrooms: Introducing a toolkit to support teachers

   Yadav, A. (April 2019, Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference)

   Driven by the need for students to be prepared for a world driven by computation, a number of recent educational reforms in science and mathematics have called for computational thinking concepts to be integrated into these content areas. However, in order for computational thinking (CT) to permeate K-12 education, we need to educate teachers about what CT ideas are and how they relate to what happens in their classroom on a day-to-day basis. This paper presents a toolkit to scaffold elementary teachers’ understanding of computational thinking ideas and how to integrate them into their lesson plans. 

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3. Teacher implementation profiles for integrating computational thinking into elementary mathematics and science instruction.

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10115-5  

   Rich, K. M.; Yadav, A.; Larimore, R. (January 2020, Education and information technologies)

   Incorporating computational thinking (CT) ideas into core subjects, such as mathematics and science, is one way of bringing early computer science (CS) education into elementary school. Minimal research has explored how teachers can translate their knowledge of CT into practice to create opportunities for their students to engage in CT during their math and science lessons. Such information can support the creation of quality professional development experiences for teachers. We analyzed how eight elementary teachers created opportunities for their students to engage in four CT practices (abstraction, decomposition, debugging, and patterns) during unplugged mathematics and science activities. We identified three strategies used by these teachers to create CT opportunities for their students: framing, prompting, and inviting reflection. Further, we grouped teachers into four profiles of implementation according to how they used these three strategies. We call the four profiles (1) presenting CT as general problem-solving strategies, (2) using CT to structure lessons, (3) highlighting CT through prompting, and (4) using CT to guide teacher planning. We discuss the implications of these results for professional development and student experiences. 

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4. Why are some students “not into” computational thinking activities embedded within high school science units? Key takeaways from a microethnographic discourse analysis study

   https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21850  

   Aslan, Umit; Horn, Michael; Wilensky, Uri (May 2024, Science Education)

   Abstract Science educators are integrating more and more computational thinking (CT) activities into their curricula. Proponents of CT offer two motivations: familiarizing students with a realistic depiction of the computational nature of modern scientific practices and encouraging more students from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. However, some studies show that increasing exposure to computing may not necessarily translate to the hypothesized gains in participation by female students and students of color. Therefore, paying close attention to students' engagement in computationally intense science activities is important to finding more impactful ways to promote equitable science education. In this paper, we present an in‐depth analysis of the interactions among a small, racially diverse group of high school students during a chemistry unit with tightly integrated CT activities. We find a salient interaction between the students' engagement with the CT activities and their social identification with publicly recognizable categories such as “enjoys coding” or “finds computing boring.” We show that CT activities in science education can lead to numerous rich interactions that could, if leveraged correctly, allow educators to facilitate more inclusive science classrooms. However, we also show that such opportunities would be missed unless teachers are attentive to them. We discuss the implications of our findings on future work to integrate CT across science curricula and teacher education. 

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5. Preparing special education preservice teachers to teach computational thinking and computer science in mathematics.

   https://doi.org/10.1177/088846421992376376  

   Bouck, E.C. (April 2021, Teacher education and special education)

   null (Ed.)

   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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