Cloud Hosting

story by Claire Miller

To ensure all students get a quality computer science (CS) education, its important for K-12 teachers and the faculty in teacher education who prepare them to understand how to integrate CS into all classrooms.

Assistant Professor Yin-Chan Janet Liao and colleagues at California State University, Dominguez Hills conducted a study to learn how professional development for faculty and staff members in a college of education could affect how they think about CS education and how they could integrate CS concepts and skills into all teacher preparation programs.

Integrating CS into teacher education programs prepares future educators to effectively teach these crucial computing skills, ensuring that all students, regardless of background, develop the computational thinking and digital literacy needed to thrive in a technology-driven world, Liao said.

Faculty and staff members at a southern California university participated in the study, where they took a two-day, six-hour CS professional development workshop. They learned definitions and misconceptions around computer science, discussed K-12 CS education at the state and national levels, highlighted issues of equity in CS education and discussed how to add this content to teacher preparation courses.

Liao and her colleagues gave participants pre- and post-surveys and collected data from the recorded Zoom meetings and chats, participants digital whiteboards from Google Jamboard and facilitators reflections on the course.

The researchers found that participants had a general knowledge of CS and had some misconceptions about it before the study, but they developed a more nuanced understanding of CS after participating in the professional development.

Similarly, participants shifted from a general interest in incorporating CS into their teacher preparation classes to outlining specific, detailed reasoning for teaching future teachers about it. And all participants showed an interest in ensuring that pre-service teachers from different backgrounds could engage in quality computer science education.

Ensuring equity and access in computer science education isnt just about preparing career-ready learners, but building a future-ready society where everyone has the tools and skills to thrive in the digital age, Liao explained. This requires expanding the CS education pipeline in teacher preparation and recognizing the need for computational literacy for all learners.

These findings, published in the Journal of Research on Technology in Education, offer a blueprint for how colleges of education can ensure their faculty are prepared to teach CS education to all future teachers, regardless of discipline.

Colleges of education must make faculty development for CS education and integration a top priority. But it's not enough to focus solely on CS education experts, Liao said. Interdisciplinary collaboration around CS learning and integration into classrooms should be actively encouraged by leadership in teacher education. By recognizing the importance of promoting equity and access in CS education across all teacher preparation programs, educators in every subject can help expand learning opportunities, prepare digital and computational-literate learners and bridge existing equity gaps.

Read the original post:

Computer Science Professional Development for Teacher Preparation Faculty - Georgia State University News - Georgia State University News