Sarah Gretter

Expanding computer science education in schools: understanding teacher experiences and challenges

Abstract The increased push for teaching computer science (CS) in schools in the United States requires training a large number of new K-12 teachers. The current efforts to increase the number of CS teachers have predominantly focused on training teachers from other content areas. In order to support these beginning CS teachers, we need to better understand their experiences and challenges encountered in the classroom. This study investigated U.S. CS teachers’ perspectives on the demands of teaching computer science and support needed to ensure quality teaching. Results suggested that teachers face a number of challenges, including isolation, lack of adequate computer science background, and limited professional development resources.

Challenges of a Computer Science Classroom: Initial Perspectives from Teachers

In spite of the increasing demand for professionals with computing experience in the workforce, computer science plays only a minor role in K-12 education. To meet the CS10K goal of training thousands of teachers to teach a new CS principles (CSP) course, a multi-pronged approach that targets both computer science teachers and teachers from other content areas is needed. An important step in this direction is to better understand challenges of teaching computing and how we can better support K-12 teachers. In this paper, we present results from a qualitative study that examines challenges computer science teachers face in the classroom.

Computational Thinking in Teacher Education

Computational thinking (CT) has been offered as a cross-disciplinary set of mental skills that are drawn from the discipline of computer science. Existing literature supports the inclusion of CT within the K-12 curriculum, within multiple subjects, and from primary grades upward. The use of computers as a context for CT skills is often possible, yet care must be taken to ensure that CT is not conflated with programming or instructional technology, in general. Research had suggested that instructing preservice teachers in the use of CT can help them develop a more accurate and nuanced understandings of how it can be applied to the classroom. This chapter reports results from a study about preservice teachers’ conceptions of CT and how it can be implemented within their classrooms. Results suggested that preservice teachers with no previous exposure to CT have a surface level understanding of computational thinking. Participants largely defined CT in terms of problem-solving, logical thinking, and other types of thinking and often requiring the use of computers. The chapter offers implications for teacher educators to embed computational thinking in preservice education courses through educational technology as well as content specific methods courses.

Design thinking and the practicing teacher: addressing problems of practice in teacher education

ABSTRACT Design thinking has been receiving increased scholarly and popular interest in education; yet, teachers are often uncertain about what it means to implement this in their educational settings. Design thinking, nonetheless, offers a framework to address the challenging problems of practice educators face. In this article, we examine a graduate-level teacher education course, at a Midwestern US university, which uses the Stanford Design Thinking Model. Educators in the course found that exposure to and practice of the design thinking model allowed them to creatively solve problems of practice relevant to their context. In particular, educators reported three main takeaways from the experience: (1) valuing empathy, (2) becoming open to uncertainty, and (3) seeing teaching as design. We discuss implications and challenges for scholarship and practice.

Walking the Line between Reality and Fiction in Online Spaces: Understanding the Effects of Narrative Transportation

This special issue on media literacy and disability provides a variety of examples and case studies to showcase the importance of addressing issues of disability in the media literacy community. The literature on the intersection of media literacy and disability is slender but suggests four distinct uses of media for students with disabilities. However, none include applying a critical lens to the use of media for students with disabilities. By connecting the practice of critical media literacy with disability theory, this paper offers a theoretical and practical framework for media literacy educators, extending NAMLE’s principles of media literacy education to the needs of this important group of learners.