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1. Preparing teachers to teach spatial computational thinking with IDV visualization of weather data

   Sun, Yan; Dyer, Jamie; Mohammadi-Aragh, Jean; Harris, Jonathan (June 2022, Preparing teachers to teach spatial computational thinking with IDV visualization of weather data)

   Funded by the NSF STEM+C program, the 3D Weather project developed instructional modules of using IDV visualization of weather data to help middle and high school students to develop spatial computational thinking. This paper reports the research on the professional development provided to 15 teachers by the 3D Weather project in the second project year. 

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2. Computational thinking, mathematics, and science: Elementary teachers’ perspectives on integration.

   Rich, K. M.; Yadav, A.; Schwarz, C. V (April 2019, Journal of technology and teacher education)

   In order to create professional development experiences, curriculum materials, and policies that support elementary school teachers to embed computational thinking (CT) in their teaching, researchers and teacher educators must under- stand ways teachers see CT as connecting to their classroom practices. Taking the viewpoint that teachers’ initial ideas about CT can serve as useful resources on which to build ed- ucational experiences, we interviewed 12 elementary school teachers to probe their understanding of six components of CT (abstraction, algorithmic thinking, automation, debug- ging, decomposition, and generalization) and how those com- ponents relate to their math and science teaching. Results suggested that teachers saw stronger connections between CT and their mathematics instruction than between CT and their science instruction. We also found that teachers draw upon their existing knowledge of CT-related terminology to make connections to their math and science instruction that could be leveraged in professional development. Teachers were, however, concerned about bringing CT into teaching due to limited class time and the difficulties of addressing high level CT in developmentally appropriate ways. We discuss these results and their implications future research and the design of professional development, sharing examples of how we used teachers’ initial ideas as the foundation of a workshop introducing them to computational thinking. 

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3. Teacher’s experiences co-designing neurodiverse pedagogies for computational thinking

   Vasquez, A. M. (April 2023, American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting 2023)

   The purpose of this research was to study the experiences of middle-school teachers of autistic students during the co-design of neurodiverse pedagogies for computational thinking (CT) within the context of a research practitioner partnership (RPP). This knowledge building partnership was founded on the neurodiversity paradigm and challenges the assumption that individuals with disabilities are exceptions for which accommodations must be made. Neurodiversity, here, is viewed as the natural variation of neurological differences and as such is proposed to be the baseline in every educational setting (Silberman, 2016; Walker, n.d.). When neurodiversity is seen as a baseline for an educational community, the focus is on educating diverse (whole) individuals rather than planning and teaching a standard computational thinking curriculum, while adding accommodations or adaptations to meet the needs of individual students. Our paper presents the results from a critical event analysis using qualitative data collected during the first year of a three-year mixed methods study, which includes teacher workshop mini-interviews and teacher embodied interviews. In this study, we ask: How do teachers experience the co-designing of neurodiverse pedagogies for computational thinking in a research practitioner partnership? And, how do these teachers modify and diversify their teaching practices of CT? 

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4. Teacher Practices for Formatively Assessing Computational Thinking with Early Elementary Learners

   https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14111250  

   Sherwood, Heather; Culp, Katherine McMillan; Ferguson, Camille; Kaiser, Alice; Henry, Meagan; Negron, Anthony (November 2024, Education Sciences)

   Few studies of computational thinking (CT) integration in elementary curricula have yet focused on supporting early elementary educators with implementing and assessing their young students’ application of these practices to content area work. This paper summarizes a collaborative research project that engaged researchers, K-second grade teachers, and professional development (PD) providers in implementing a hybrid PD model to answer the following research questions: (1) What kind of PD and guidance do teachers need to identify and support emergent computational thinking development in young students’ language and work process? (2) What kind of PD and guidance do teachers need to identify emergent computational thinking development in young students’ work products? This project employed a mixed-methods research design that included pre- and post-surveys and interviews with teachers to measure and understand how growth in teachers’ confidence, knowledge, and self-efficacy with CT prepared them to identify and support these concepts with young learners. Additionally, analysis was able to identify the key formative assessment strategies these teachers employed to generate insight into students’ understanding and application of CT during problem-solving. 

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5. Accessible Computational Thinking in Elementary Science.

   Bernier, J.; Cabrera, L.; Figueroa, F.; Ha, J.; Kramarczuk, K.; Mak, J.; Su, M.; Xin, Y.; Yan, L.; Ketelhut, D. J.; et al (January 2022, Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of the Learning Sciences - ICLS 2022.)

   Chinn, C.; Tan, E.; & Kali, Y. (Ed.)

   Computational thinking (CT) is ubiquitous in modern science, yet rarely integrated at the elementary school level. Moreover, access to computer science education at the PK-12 level is inequitably distributed. We believe that access to CT must be available earlier and implemented with the support of an equitable pedagogical framework. Our poster will describe our Accessible Computational Thinking (ACT) research project exploring professional development with elementary teachers on integrating computational thinking with Culturally Responsive Teaching practices. 

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