Teaching algorithms in upper secondary education: a study of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge

Abstract

Background and Context: Computing education is expanding, while the teaching of algorithms is less well studied. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching algorithms. Method: We conducted semi-structured interviews with seven computer science (CS) teachers in upper secondary education (students aged 15-18). The data were analyzed qualitatively. Findings: We found two patterns of variation in teachers' PCK. First, we detected variation in the teachers' goals related to their view of algorithms: they either focused on "thinking" about the algorithm as an object, or focused on "thinking and making", where the algorithm is also regarded as a program. Second, we found variation in teachers' knowledge about responding to differences between students, which may be generic or topic-specific. Furthermore, our findings reveal that teachers consider class discussions to play a significant role as an instructional method for provoking reflection. Implications: Our findings regarding PCK may be beneficial for the development of teacher education and professionalization activities for CS teachers.

Stakeholder Perceptions Regarding Level 3 `Digital Skills' Teaching: A Qualitative Case Study of Colleges in South West England.

“…Many interviewees discussed how they teach industry standard content, and use their previous industry experience to make concepts and topics more relevant and 'real' to the students. This approach supplements other studies that investigated computing teachers pedagogical strategies, where relevant lessons where students can see where they can apply their knowledge being especially important for abstract topics such as algorithms (Nijenhuis-Voogt et al, 2021). Besides, a students future employment will be based on real-life contexts so contextualisation of the learning is important, but this also requires teachers to have an understanding of local context, employment options and any changes in the sector (McCrone et al, 2015;Passey, 2017).…”

“…Scaffolding can be provided to students through the provision of regular practical exercises with the opportunity for good quality formative feedback (Davenport et al, 2016). Often used in topics such as programming and algorithms (Nijenhuis- Voogt et al, 2021), this pedagogical strategy refers to how teachers can help students understand program code, with teachers emphasising good practice where they give students part of a program to extend, and programs to debug (Sentance and Csizmadia, 2017a). Interviewees did not explicitly mention the term scaffolding in terms of a pedagogical strategy to help students, most likely as the interviews were not exclusively focused on programming pedagogy.…”

“…, this also emphasises the importance of CPD that shares best practice on how to gain a better student understanding. This can include different approaches to learning, activities that are difficult or easy to learn, and what elements or methods of study that students are likely to be more or less engaged by(Nijenhuis-Voogt et al, 2021).…”