Preparing upper elementary school teachers for integrating computational thinking into regular classroom activities
Youwen Ouyang, Katherine Hayden, Julie Remold · Journal of computing sciences in colleges · 2018
Recent initiatives demonstrate the interest in, and demand for, computational thinking education in elementary schools. However, teachers' readiness for programming-based activities along with their concerns about taking away time from key subject content present barriers for broader integration of computational thinking. This paper presents our experience and findings of a yearlong professional development for a cohort of 21 teachers from self-contained classrooms in grades 4 - 6. The project targeted these grade levels for two reasons: (1) self-contained classrooms provide maximum contact time between teachers and students, affording more flexibility in scheduling and potential for sustained impact, and (2) these grades are critical times for students to build interest and foundations in STEM while many teachers in these classrooms have limited STEM and computing background. The paper provides an overview of the professional development and describes selected activities in more detail. The impact of the professional development on the participating teachers is also presented.