NSF Awards: 1639891
To increase the number and diversity of students enrolled in secondary computer science courses (and thus in computer science careers), interest and basic understanding need to be developed in younger children when interests are being formed. The first step is to improve the preparation that elementary teachers receive about computational thinking (CT) to increase both the quantity and quality of exposure for elementary-aged children that can then be built upon throughout their schooling. This project’s overall goal, therefore, is to transform elementary school teacher practice by integrating CT strategically and significantly into science instruction for all young learners, thereby promoting a more numerous and more diverse citizenry, knowledgeable and interested in computing. The CT→PSTE project is designing, implementing, and testing pedagogical modules for developing CT in preservice teachers’ science methods pedagogical course. Further, an extracurricular Science Teaching CT Inquiry Group is being designed to enhance and broaden the level of understanding for both teacher interns’ and their mentor teachers’ understanding of CT, including how computer applications support the teaching of science and CT as a necessary science practice for all elementary-aged students. Instruction in how to convey to young learners the integral nature of CT for STEM career awareness and readiness is included throughout the curriculum innovation. This project is engaging in exploratory, basic research to provide empirical support in developing a set of resources (science methods experiences), tools (a framework for integrating CT in undergraduate science teacher education), and measures (assessments for CT understanding and CT-STEM career awareness).
Diane Jass Ketelhut
Associate Professor
Hi! Thanks for viewing our video! Our project on integrating computational thinking into preservice elementary science teacher education has just finished its first year of implementation (CT-->PSTE). Therefore, we are highlighting our design in this video while we work on initial assessment. We'd love to hear your thinking about our design!
1. What do you see as the benefits and issues with integrating CT into preservice teachers' solo science methods course? Do you see this as something your university might be willing to do?
2. How feasible might the extracurricular inquiry group be for your preservice teachers and their mentors?
3. Lastly, we would love to hear your thoughts on any aspect of our design!
Thanks for visiting and sharing!
Dennis Pearl
Computational thinking is an absolutely crucial skill for pre-service teachers and your design looks like it can lead to good success. I'm wondering if you might find common cause with the Data Science folks who are looking to enhance both quantitative literacy and computational thinking in the same audience.
Diane Jass Ketelhut
Hannoori Jeong
Thank you for viewing our video and sharing your thoughts! While we are interested in studying how pre-service teachers can integrate CT into science teaching practices, you raised an interesting and important piece of information about the Data Science individuals that are looking for ways to enhance both quantitative literacy and CT!
I wonder how they view quantitative literacy and CT as complementary in science? Please feel free to share further! I would love know more and what others think.
Lautaro Cabrera
Hi Dennis, thank you for your comment. I think looking at the Data Science literature is an excellent idea.
We've seen teachers in our study talk about how CT is "easier" to integrate in their Math lessons than when teaching more general science content. It's possible that they, too, see a relationship between quantitative literacy and computational thinking. We are making an effort to expand their understanding of CT and to feel confident about applying it in those areas, like science, where the connection may not be as immediately clear.
Alan Peterfreund
Nice job explaining the project. I would like to hear more about how and where this fits into the pre-service teacher curriculum? Also, how are teh pre-service teachers being recruited or is it a required component of their program?
Deborah Fields
Emily Hestness
Postdoctoral Researcher
Thanks for watching and for your questions. The Elementary Science Methods course in which we are integrating computational thinking is required for all senior preservice elementary teachers in our teacher ed program. The monthly afterschool Science Teaching Inquiry Group for preservice teachers and mentor teachers is voluntary, and open to preservice teachers who express interest. We recruited preservice teachers for the Science Teaching Inquiry Group by visiting one of their seminar classes the year prior and sharing information about the opportunity. In the future, we hope to recruit additional preservice teacher/mentor teacher pairs (i.e., who are teaching in the same elementary classroom) to participate together.
Deborah Fields
Love the video and the project. I'm curious about what you see as some of the challenges in working with pre-service elementary teachers in the area of CS. I'm actually more familiar with some of the issues of doing this in Hong Kong than in the US, but I think it's a really important area!
Hannoori Jeong
Thank you! I would say that the issue of gender imbalance in STEM field, Computer Science in particular, is one of the challenges that we have considered in working with pre-service elementary teachers. Throughout our Computational Thinking reflective inquiry group workshops that we facilitated, we addressed the need for an enhanced awareness on gender equity in our field in an effort to promote equitable learning and teaching practices.
I am interested in knowing more about your work in Hong Kong and what issues you dealt with?
Diane Jass Ketelhut
Associate Professor
HI, Deborah.
Thanks for your interest in our project and the kind words about our video! I think that one of the issues we have seen with working with elementary (both pre- and in-service) is around their own self-efficacy towards computers, and computer science language. At first, they are much more comfortable with doing stand-alone lessons, but as they get more comfortable they begin to more authentically integrate CT with science in their practice. We are still on the early side of our implementations, so we will see if this early finding holds true.
Deborah Fields
Diane, that makes sense and is a really interesting perspective. On moving from single lessons to thinking more systematically (???) about integrating CS. You should talk with Colby Tofel-Grehl (https://teal.usu.edu/directory/tofel-grehl) who is just starting some work with elementary teachers in a similar area. We need so much more in this area of CS!
Diane Jass Ketelhut
Associate Professor
thanks, Deborah, for the connection!
Diane
Angie Kalthoff
Technology Integrationist
I look forward to following your work. As an elementary educator, I integrate CT and CS in classrooms as often as possible.
From my experience, students want to know why they are doing an activity or learning a new topic. How are you helping the students understand the connection between why you are integrating computer science and computational thinking into their lessons and the connection it has to their future?
How are you helping educators see the connection between their elementary classroom standards and computational thinking?
As you work with pre-service teachers, how are you helping them understand how to assign grades to projects?
Lautaro Cabrera
Hi Angie, thank you for your comment!
Thanks again,
LC
Diane Jass Ketelhut
Associate Professor
Hi, Angie
Thanks, LC, for your response to Angie. A few other points/ideas/questions:
1. I'm interested, Angie, in how you are integrated ct/cs into your practice? We struggle to help our teachers think about ct/cs as more th 'tools' as opposed to constructs/concepts.
2. LC is right that we are always making connections to NGSS, but that sometimes is a bit frustrating because while NGSS lists CT as one of the 8 scientific processes, there is little explication of how to use it in the elementary classroom.
Thoughts?
Hannoori Jeong
Hi Angie! Thank you for viewing our presentation and for your thoughtful questions!
Adding on to Lautaro's response, we had our pre-service teachers work on designing lesson plans (based on the elementary grade level that they teach) that integrated CT and present their lesson plans at our reflective inquiry group sessions. Some using educational technological tools such as code-a-pillar in their lessons, they helped us see their understanding of CT and how successfully they implemented their lessons not only for science learning but for literacy as well for ELL students. We aspire to promoting the usefulness of CT that has real life applications, such as perseverance, beyond science.
Angie Kalthoff
Technology Integrationist
Here is what I have been working on to bring CT and CS into k-5 classrooms in my school district
bit.ly/lstact <--- website with everything
bit.ly/lstalessonplans <----- Google Sheet with ever-evolving lesson plans
If you have a chance to take a look at them and want to talk about what you see and/or help me develop them further, please send me an email kalthoff@pd.code.org and we can set up a Google Hangout!
Diane Jass Ketelhut
David DeLiema
Thanks so much for sharing this project. I love how deeply committed your team is to working with teachers to understand connections between robotics and computational thinking. On that note, I would love to hear more about how you are defining computational thinking. The term has been used in so many ways. What aspects do you emphasize? Do you find that some aspects of CT are more or less tractable for your project context? Do your teachers view some aspects of CT as more or less valuable for their teaching?
Hannoori Jeong
Hi David! We agree with you that the term computational thinking has been variably described by Wing (2006), NRC (2010), and the list goes on.
After reviewing a variety of perspectives on CT, we were drawn to Weintrop et. al’s (2016) framing of CT in terms of practices for math and science classrooms, as well as CSTA/ISTE’s (2011) operational definition of CT in terms of concepts, capabilities, and dispositions to be modeled in K-12 education. We decided to integrate these two perspectives into our introduction of CT into an Elementary Science Methods course.
Our surveys show that the pre-service teachers view CT as a valuable tool for learning, particularly systems thinking, models and simulation, algorithmic thinking, data practices, to name a few. We are early in our implementation phase so we are hoping to see that teachers become more acclimated to this relatively new concept and integrating it into their teaching practices.
Diane Jass Ketelhut
Associate Professor
HI, David
you asked if our teachers find one or more ct aspects problematic...i'm not sure that they see this one as problematic, but I do. Our teachers are having issues with distinguishing between data analysis that we always do for science with data analysis that is ct-infused. I think we are struggling too to separate out those (and wonder too if they should be???)
would love to hear your thoughts on this!
Karthik Ramani
Donald W. Feddersen Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Nice exposition of how to help introduce computational thinking to teachers and suggestive of robots being used to scaffold this process. I would like some concrete examples of using one of those robots and the learning goals - some concrete computational thinking abstractions that can come out of an exercise. I was looking for something to place my fingers on in the video.
Diane Jass Ketelhut
Associate Professor
HI, Karthik. Thanks for you question about learning goals. We use the robots for multiple purposes...it is why they are such a good first step for our teachers. I 'crowdsourced' your question to my team and what I write below is a synthesis of their ideas.
First, with the lego robots we focus on ct skills of problem decomposition, algorithmic thinking, programming language abstraction, repetition (loops), and the software life cycle. For example, we give the teachers challenges, and they use problem decomposition to break the challenge they are currently facing into smaller steps where those steps each translate into one action that the robot can perform.
Second, the challenges and problem-solving them also support CT dispositions building, like persistence in working with difficult problems and the ability to communicate and work with others to achieve a common goal or solution.
Does this get at what you were asking?
Karthik Ramani
Donald W. Feddersen Professor of Mechanical Engineering
I am curious to know how they represent problem decomposition and algorithms. What and how do you deal with language abstraction - that is a harder concept?
Hannoori Jeong
Hi Karthik, we designed an activity that had pre-service teachers use problem decomposition and algorithmic thinking to get robots from an origin to a destination that we had set with obstacles on the way. We observed that they had utilized necessary computational thinking practices, including problem decomposition and algorithmic thinking, to successfully complete the task. With assistance from computer scientists, they learned how to program the robots to decompose the bigger task at hand into smaller steps and carried out the activity using algorithmic thinking. I hope this helps answer your question.
Xiaoxue
Thank you for sharing the video and the great work! Curious if you can explain the professional development model of the research study. Also, could you give an example about how to make explicit direct relations between CT and the NGSS in the workshop? Thank you!
Diane Jass Ketelhut
Associate Professor
Hi, Xiaoxue
we have a couple of different places where we use different approaches. In our methods course with our preservice teachers, we employ a social constructivist theory of learning. We use something similar for the mentor teachers only workshop. However, in our combined group, we are focusing more on a community of practice approach where each participant (including the researcher/facilitators) bring in a special area of expertise. We try at each meeting to co-develop how to infuse ct into science elementary education.
thanks for asking!
Further posting is closed as the showcase has ended.