Competing Priorities for Computational Thinking: Tensions Between Integration and Implementation Across Four School Districts

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 4:55 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Integrating Computing Education and Professional Development (Table 28)

Abstract

This paper presents a landscape study of four school districts in terms of teachers’ capacity to integrate and implement CT into their own classrooms. As part of a wider, four-year national study, this early landscape work is key to understanding how districts are understanding CT as a cross-disciplinary subject matter, the priority teachers place on it as a school and district-based initiative, and their sense of their own (and their fellow teachers’) capacity to meaningfully implement it. In line with the AERA 2024 theme of dismantling racial injustice and constructing new educational possibilities, central to this investigation is broadening access and depth of computing experiences for underrepresented students and the crucial role of teachers in these efforts.

Authors

• Quinn Burke, Digital Promise

• Merijke Coenraad, Digital Promise Global

• Alessandra Rangel, Digital Promise

• Kelly Mills, Digital Promise Global