Leveraging Existing Classroom Practices to Integrate Computational Thinking: An Exploration of K-5 Teacher Learning Trajectories

• In Event: Bridging Institutions, Building Futures: School–University Partnerships for Sustainable K–12 CS Education

Abstract

Objectives
This project involved a research-practice partnership with an elementary school in a Southeastern state to integrate computational thinking (CT, Wing, 2006) into content area teaching across grades K-5. Over the course of four years (2019-2023), we worked with 17 teachers to create 22 CT-integrated lessons that were taught to over 800 students. The project aimed to support teachers in integrating CT into disciplinary teaching using equitable pedagogies. All professional development activities were collaborative and co-constructed between researchers and teachers in order to be responsive to teachers’ learning about CT and classroom contexts.

Perspectives
There has been growing interest in introducing CT to children in the elementary grades as a way of increasing equitable access to computer science practices and coursework for all learners (Kaya et al., 2019; Ketelhut et al., 2020; Saxena et al., 2020). However, the field has yet to fully elucidate the developmental pathways that teachers travel as they learn about CT and implement new practices in the classroom. In order to describe and understand teacher learning, we draw from literature on learning trajectories, the use of learning trajectories for teacher professional development, and domains of knowledge for teaching (Edgington et al., 2016; Sarama et al., 2016). As a result, through this project, we developed a unique construct—pedagogical content knowledge learning trajectories, which we define as observable shifts in teachers’ conceptualizations and implementation of a new practice (in this case, computational thinking).

Methods and Data Sources
Across the four years of the project, we collected pre-PD, mid-year and end-of-year surveys; video-recorded collaborative PD sessions; collected video recordings of teachers’ implementation of CT-infused lessons; kept journals documenting our work; and interviewed individual teachers. A longitudinal multiple case study methodology (Yin, 2017) was chosen leveraged in order to address how and why questions about current classroom practices, and the phenomenon (CT infusion). All data were analyzed using iterative qualitative analysis techniques, including the constant comparative method (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). The focus of analysis was the shifts in teachers’ integration of CT into their teaching, as well as shifts in their abilities to attend to children’s development of CT skills, both of which depend on teachers’ widening and deepening their own conceptualizations of CT.

Results
Findings suggest that teachers’ CT content knowledge shifts over time and is connected to the pedagogical knowledge teachers develop as they implement CT-infused lessons in their classrooms. Over time, teachers gradually more sophisticated skills in considering their particular classroom contexts, adapting lessons based on the needs of their students, and considering and attending to students’ conceptual development. Analysis of implementation data also suggests that leveraging existing instructional practices, such as read-alouds, can accelerate teachers' abilities to infuse computational thinking into classroom teaching.

Scholarly Significance
This study illustrates the importance of research that follows teachers' developmental trajectories as they grapple with CT to adopt integrated pedagogical practices. The resulting LTs can be used to design and implement comprehensive professional development programs that support teachers’ CT integration efforts.

Authors

• Jennifer Albert, The Citadel

• Robin Jocius, University of Kentucky

• Candace Joswick, University of Texas - Arlington

• Melanie Blanton, Texas Tech University

• Ian O'Byrne, College of Charleston

• Deepti Joshi, The Citadel