Beyond Access: Developing Teacher Capacity to Teach Rigorous Computer Science

• In Event: Promoting Equitable CS and AI Education: Strategies to Expand Capacity and Access

Abstract

Objectives or Purpose
While computer science is widely recognized as crucial for all U.S. high school students, challenges persist for teachers’ pedagogical content and culturally responsive-sustaining knowledge. In order to expand access to high quality and rigorous computer science learning opportunities, we need to ensure that teachers have necessary skills. In this poster, we present how a co-teaching model can be used to support teachers’ knowledge and skills to teach computer science.

Background
A recent landscape study found that several states in the US and countries like Ireland have challenges recruiting teachers into CS teacher preparation programs [21]. As a result, curriculum providers (e.g., Code.org and Project Lead The Way) and state and federal departments of education have used professional learning experiences to prepare teachers for implementing CS curricula. This has led to varied student outcomes, including students from racially marginalized groups being less likely to successfully complete the course [22]. To achieve this, we used a co-teaching model to help AP CSP teachers develop CS knowledge for rigorous CS instruction. The co-teaching approach placed a university instructor in the high school teacher’s classroom on a daily basis for an entire academic year. As the university instructor has expertise in the technical content and its pedagogy, their presence assists in developing the high school teacher’s CS content knowledge as well as their pedagogical approach through sustained deep interaction. In order to accomplish this we used a co-teaching model with an experienced university instructor to support novice teachers to teach the Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles (AP-CSP) course.

Methods and Data Sources
We interviewed teachers over the course of an academic year with the first interview occurring after they had participated in a professional development for high school computer science teachers to learn about the CS Principles curriculum. During the academic year, teachers were supported in their computer science instruction by a co-teacher with a background in computer science. We conducted a second interview with the teachers after the school year to better understand their experience teaching CSP, the role of co-teacher in the classroom, development of their own knowledge to teach CS, and their thoughts on implementing culturally responsive computing into their classrooms.

Results
We discuss teachers’ perspectives about the role of co-teaching in developing their knowledge and skills to teach AP-CSP and how they adapted pedagogical strategies to support their students’ learning in the course. In particular, our findings highlight how teachers found co-teaching to be a valuable professional learning experience and discussed how they benefited from the mentorship and collaboration offered by co-teacher.

Scholarly Significance
Given prior research has suggested that novice CS teachers lack the capacity to learn and maintain an entirely new course subject while facing other demands and also feel isolated in their schools [23], our findings are important to develop teacher capacity to offer rigorous CS instruction.

Authors

• Richard Hill, University of Detroit Mercy

• Aman Yadav, Michigan State University

• Michael L. Lachney, Michigan State University

• Andrew Lapentina, University of Detroit Mercy

• Hyein Jee, Michigan State University