High School Science Teacher Use of Planning Tools to Integrate Computational Thinking

High school biology teachers’ integration of computational thinking into data practices to support student investigations

“…Finally, teachers explicitly integrated CT with a task analysis tool, which helped them to isolate each data practice and consider which CT practice would enhance that particular skill. Peters‐Burton et al (2022) found that when teachers identified data practices and integrated CT practices with this tool, it reinforced their understanding of both the data practice and the CT practice. This finding corroborates Nijenhuis‐Voogt et al (2022) finding that CT instruction does not need to be digital and responds to their call for curriculum to be direct and detailed.…”

“…While our study emphasized CT, the results of these studies focused more on what Brennan and Resnick (2012) refer to as coding principles. Although coding and CT are certainly related, multiple studies have now found that they are not one and the same (Peters‐Burton et al, 2020; Román‐González et al, 2017). From this research, we can see that decomposition and pattern‐finding seem to be easier for biology teachers to integrate generally and that automation seems to be the most difficult to integrate.…”

“…The outcome of the PD resulted in five collaboratively planned and implemented lessons that integrated CT into data practices across different areas in biology. The lesson plans included what teachers typically wrote in the planning stages, but we also asked them to explicitly identify where the data practices were occurring in the lesson and which practice would support each data practice using a task analysis tool (Peters‐Burton et al, 2022). The purpose of the task analysis tool was to help teachers break down the lesson to identify areas where students engaged in data practices.…”

“…Lesson plans included a task analysis that explicitly listed the data practices (Weintrop et al, 2015) and the CT practices involved in the lesson as interpreted by the science teachers. This was done in a four‐column matrix at the end of each lesson plan that asked the teacher to go through the lesson plan and break down each learning task (Peters‐Burton et al, 2022). In the first column, teachers listed what they will be doing during the learning task; in the second column, teachers listed what the student will be doing during the learning task.…”