Action research as a tool for promoting teacher awareness of students' conceptual understanding

Abstract

Assimilating a new CS curriculum requires appropriate inservice training. The emphasis in the new CS curriculum upon conceptual understanding requires teachers to become aware of characteristic ways in which students construct their knowledge and of common student difficulties. In this paper we describe a regional CS teacher workshop in which action research was used to trigger changes in teachers' knowledge and approach and especially to promote awareness of students' conceptual understanding. The favorable teacher evaluation of the workshop, and the action research products indicate that the workshop design promoted the beginning of a teacher change necessary for assimilating the new CS curriculum and establishing a collaborative community of teachers.