Integrating Computational Thinking Into STEM Teaching: Understanding Preservice Teachers’ Conceptualizations and Practices

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 3:05 pm
  In Roundtable Session: STEM and Preservice Teaching (Table 33)

Abstract

Situated in a two-year urban teacher residency program at [University] that aims to prepare high school teachers for integrating computational thinking (CT) into equity-focused STEM teaching and learning, this paper investigates how preservice teachers conceptualized CT and integrated CT into high school STEM classrooms. Based on our preliminary analysis of 10 artifact-based interviews, we identified two major categories of teacher profiles: 1) One group of teachers demonstrated that they had explicit knowledge of CT and integrated CT explicitly into their teaching. 2) While demonstrating their explicit knowledge of CT, another group of teachers integrated CT into teaching in implicit ways. The findings would inform our future teacher education efforts to enhance teachers’ readiness to integrate CT into STEM teaching.

Authors

• Wei Wei, University of California - Los Angeles

• Kimberley Gomez, University of California - Los Angeles

• Jesse Ha, Montclair State University

• Imelda Nava-Landeros, University of California - Los Angeles

• Annamarie M. Francois, University of California - Los Angeles