From professional development to the classroom: Findings from CS K-12 teachers

Lori Pollock, Chrystalla Mouza, Amanda Czik, Alexis Little, Debra Coffey, Joan Buttram

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

The CS for All initiative places increased emphasis on the need to prepare K-12 teachers of computer science (CS). Professional development (PD) programs continue to be an essential mechanism for preparing in-service teachers who have little formal background in CS content, skills, and teaching pedagogy. While increased investment by federal agencies and the industry has raised the number of CS PD opportunities for K-12 teachers, there has been limited study of how teachers apply what they learn back in their classroom. This paper describes an in-depth qualitative study through interviews of 28 elementary, middle and high school teachers who participated in summer PD in preparation of teaching a full CS course or integrate CS modules into existing courses (e.g., science, engineering, business, technology, etc). The interview protocol focused on educators' involvement in the PD, specific skills and strategies they learned, whether and how they have been able to apply these new skills in the classroom, what facilitated or impeded this application, and how students have responded.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationSIGCSE 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages477-482
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781450346986
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 8 2017
Externally publishedYes
Event48th ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2017 - Seattle, United States
Duration: Mar 8 2017Mar 11 2017

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Conference on Integrating Technology into Computer Science Education, ITiCSE

Other

Other48th ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2017
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySeattle
Period3/8/173/11/17

Keywords

  • Computational thinking
  • CS education
  • CS principles
  • K12
  • Teacher professional development

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Engineering

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