Field Experiences in Teaching Computer Science

Abstract

A major challenge for broadening participation in computing within K-12 settings is the lack of trained teachers. While professional development programs provide opportunities for the development of knowledge, skills, and pedagogy in teaching computing, teachers need ongoing support throughout the academic year. In this paper, we describe a course-based model for partnering undergraduates with teachers and students in a field experience model. We describe the model focusing on learning objectives, curriculum, field component and partnership building. We subsequently report on the products that undergraduates were able to create with their partner teachers. Finally, we investigate the impact of the field experience model on undergraduates' content knowledge, pedagogical skills and career development.

Infusing Computational Thinking Across Disciplines

“…Specifically, participants reported better understanding (items 1-4) and comfort (items 5-10) with CT. However, participants did not express greater interest in CT after their participation in the course (items [11][12][13][14]. Further, there was some ambivalence regarding the importance and value of CT in participants' future careers, specifically within their discipline (items [15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

“…This question tested students' understanding of CT. The survey also used 20 Likert-type items (see Table 1) to assess student understanding and attitudes in four categories: definition (e.g., see items 1-4), comfort (see items 5-10), interest (see items [11][12][13][14], career/future use (see items [15][16][17][18][19][20]. Likert-type responses were scored on a scale of 1-4 where 1=Strongly Disagree and 4=Strongly Agree.…”

“…To prepare CT Fellows, we draw on a model developed to prepare undergraduate students to assist K-12 teachers in teaching computing [13]. In this model, students interested in becoming Fellows participate in a university course called Field Experiences in Teaching Computing.…”

“…In this work, we present our effort to develop, pilot, and evaluate a model for infusing CT into undergraduate curricula across a variety of disciplines using multiple methods that have been previously tried and tested individually, including: (1) multiple pathways of CT, (2) faculty professional development (PD), (3) undergraduate peer mentors, and (4) formative assessment [4,6,8]. Locally, this work is motivated by the recent decision of our institution to add CT to its education objectives for all undergraduate students.…”

Reflecting on Computational Thinking Studies for High School Education

“…However, the result showed, the awareness of merging attitude in CT is still low. Only very few studies that took it into account [21], [40], [54], [55], [64]. Problem-solving, teamwork, communication, collaboration, and persistence were the attitudes found in the examined studies.…”