Teachers as Learners, Teachers as Teachers: Culturally Relevant Computational Thinking Professional Development for K-12 In-Service TeachersMSIK12Online
This program is tentative and subject to change.
The national movement to integrate computational thinking (CT) and computer science (CS) into K-12 education has led to rapid expansion. However, this growth is challenged by the reality that many in-service teachers asked to teach CS/CT are novices with little formal preparation. Professional development is critical to bridging this gap, yet many programs struggle to connect with teachers’ diverse experiences and move beyond theory to classroom practice. This paper presents an experience report from a multi-year one-week summer course serving over 100 middle and high school teachers, the majority of whom were novices in CT. Our work contributes a novel “Dual CRP Model” for CT professional development grounded in the principles of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP). This model is structured around two key components within each session: a “Teachers as Learners” mini-lecture that connects CT concepts to teachers’ own lived experiences, followed immediately by a “Teachers as Teachers” hands-on exercise where they adapt K-12 CT activities for their own students. Pre- and post-course survey data consistently show that teachers enter with low confidence and leave feeling highly prepared to teach CT. Qualitative findings and an analysis of course artifacts reveal that the model’s success stems from its use of culturally relevant analogies to make concepts accessible and its bridge from theory to classroom practice, which are key factors in building both conceptual understanding and pedagogical confidence.
This program is tentative and subject to change.
Fri 20 FebDisplayed time zone: Central Time (US & Canada) change
15:40 - 17:00 | |||
15:40 20mTalk | AI See What You Did There – The Prevalence of LLM-Generated Answers in MOOC ResponsesOnline Papers Petteri Nurmi University of Helsinki, Musfira Khan University of Helsinki, Zahra Safaei University of Helsinki, Ngoc Thi Nguyen University of Helsinki, Fatemeh Sarhaddi University of Helsinki, Mika Tompuri University of Helsinki, Henrik Nygren University of Helsinki, Päivi Kinnunen University of Helsinki, Agustin Zuniga University of Helsinki | ||
16:00 20mTalk | Like parsley in Greek food: Elementary set theory and the case for DM1 Papers Siddharth Bhaskar University of Southern Denmark | ||
16:20 20mTalk | Teachers as Learners, Teachers as Teachers: Culturally Relevant Computational Thinking Professional Development for K-12 In-Service TeachersMSIK12Online Papers Hao Yue pc, Jingyi Wang San Francisco State University, Ilmi Yoon San Francisco State University, Qiang Hao Western Washington University | ||
This room is designated as the online viewing room for attendees to watch online sessions on their own devices.