K-12 educators’ self-confidence in designing and implementing cybersecurity lessons
Gina M. Childers, C. Lindsay Linsky, Bryson R. Payne, Jack Byers, Daniel Baker · Computers and Education Open · 2022
Cybersecurity awareness and education initiatives are being designed and expanded for the workforce and K-20 education institutions. Predominately, K-12 cybersecurity education programs and research have focused on student learning experiences; however, there is a need to also concentrate cybersecurity education resources on K-12 teacher professional development. Teacher professional development supporting self-confidence in knowledge building and modeling of instructional practices may positively influence K-12 teachers’ integration of cybersecurity concepts within classroom instruction. This study documented K-12 teachers’ (n=17) perceived self-confidence in designing and implementing cybersecurity-related lessons when participating in a week-long cybersecurity education workshop experience funded by the National Security Agency's GenCyber grant program called the [Redacted Program Name]. Teachers were asked to rate their perceived self-confidence (pre and post) related to cybersecurity lesson development. Results showed that all self-confidence survey items increased after engaging in the GenCyber workshop; however, two items focused on creating engaging, inquiry-based lessons were not significant at the alpha value level of 0.003. These findings suggest that effective professional development aimed to increase K-12 teachers’ cybersecurity knowledge and to support development and implementation of cybersecurity-related lesson plans is an important factor in advocating for cybersecurity education efforts in K-12 education.