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Teacher Readiness for Professional Learning on Computational Thinking (CT) Integration

Research Question:

Does a highly personalized professional development model that starts from understanding teacher readiness for CT integration supports teacher effectiveness in the integration of CT within everyday curriculum?

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Teacher Readiness for Professional Learning on Computational Thinking (CT) Integration

Project Description:

New project to evaluate a model of CT teacher professional learning
Using an assessment of teachers’ readiness for CT as driver for a highly personalized approach to building competency, confidence and comfort with CT integration within core curriculum
10 elementary schools in New York City serving students of color and need
90 teachers, primarily assigned to grades 4 and 5
Teachers have minimal prior familiarity to CS or CT concepts or integration
Studying impact of this professional learning model on teacher effectiveness and student outcomes
Development of a sustainable model that grows capacity schoolwide and can be replicated

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Teacher Readiness for Professional Learning on Computational Thinking (CT) Integration

Problem factors:

Challenges with defining CT within an elementary classroom context
Teachers’ lack of knowledge about CT
Existing professional learning models do not always follow best practices
Relationship between technology skills and adoption of new teaching strategies
Second order barriers including teachers’ self-efficacy around CT abilities

Comfort levels among elementary school teachers for CT integration:

Very comfortable – 8%
Somewhat comfortable – 27%
Not comfortable – 32%

Source: Project Tomorrow research with 4,445 elementary school teachers – 2019/20 school year

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Teacher Readiness for Professional Learning on Computational Thinking (CT) Integration

Model elements:

Understanding individual teacher readiness to inform personalized professional learning (PPL) plan
1:1 coaching and mentoring for personal growth
Focus on integration within core curriculum, not a separated activity
Provide technology scaffolding
Build school capacity for sustainability with a new CT culture

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Understanding individual teacher readiness to inform personalized professional learning (PPL) plan

Teachers’ Readiness to Adopt and Adapt CT (TRAACT) Spectrum and Assessment Tool

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1:1 coaching and mentoring for personal growth

For teachers within the Awareness or Valuation levels of concern per the TRAACT spectrum	Introductory CT resource review and explicit connections to curriculum to develop awareness. Review of curriculum standards and how they align to technology and ISTE standards for CT integration. More explicit walkthroughs for technology usage to learn features of tools and integration (i.e., our teachers here tend to need more time using tools together, exploring their lesson plans and detailing opportunities for integration of tools). Modeling of CT applications within curriculum (often through the scope of lesson plans and unit plans). Reviewing student work, outcomes and experiences to gauge impact of introductory work and identify authentic student usages of CT.

Example:

Teacher is assessed at in this quadrant of the TRAACT Spectrum
CT Instructional Coach meets with teacher 2X a month
Professional learning activities and recommended resources are targeted at enhancing competency but also confidence and comfort

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1:1 coaching and mentoring for personal growth

Example:

Teacher is assessed at in this quadrant of the TRAACT Spectrum
CT Instructional Coach meets with teacher 2X a month
Professional learning activities and recommended resources are targeted at enhancing competency but also confidence and comfort

Management

Collaboration

Refocusing

For teachers within the Management or Refocusing levels of concern per the TRAACT spectrum	Reflection on prior CT/CS practices and explore areas for growth/differentiation. Exploration of technology tools- more focused on application and student outcomes than learning usage of technology tool. High focus on student collaboration and higher-level usage of tools to show understanding and learning. Review of student work (i.e., exit slips, independent work, technology projects) to further enhance existing CT usage and increase student awareness and value. Considerations for interdisciplinary connections/meaningful school or grade level integrations

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Focus on integration within core curriculum, not a separated activity

Lesson activity goal: To identify themes within a literature content piece

Content: Aesop’s fable “The Tortoise and the Hare”

Use of CT concepts within learning activity:

Use pattern recognition to categorize the traits or characteristics of the Tortoise and the Hare
Isolate significant plot components using decomposition
Determine how the traits or characteristics of the Tortoise or the Hare connect with the key plot themes using abstraction

Example:

Integration of CT concepts of pattern recognition, decomposition and abstraction within an ELA lesson on plot and theme

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Supporting the coaching & mentoring with an online PLC, annual workshops and access to BrainPOP’s Creative Coding suite of projects for technology scaffolding

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Teacher Readiness for Professional Learning on Computational Thinking (CT) Integration

Preliminary findings:

Changes in TRAACT scores after first 6 months of intervention
3 schools – 14 teachers
Consistency of coaching and mentoring and engagement with additional resources
Looking to validate model and tools

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Preliminary findings: TRAACT growth spectrum

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Preliminary findings: Personal growth journey

School – Teacher	January 2020 Score	June 2020 Score
School ABC – Teacher 3	A1	V2/V3

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Preliminary findings: Personal growth journey

Teacher 3 at School ABC:

In January 2020 Teacher 3 had concerns about CT integration having never heard of it before.
Professional learning steps:

Resource review focused on learning more about CT concepts
Dedicated coaching time to helping Teacher 3 become more familiar with how she and her students could engage with CT concepts and discussing initial integration methods in a subject area of her choice.

Teacher 3 now says she sees how CT is everywhere and how often her students are using it. She and integrates CT vocabulary in multiple disciplines.
In the 2020-21 school year, she more frequently incorporates the use of CT vocabulary in her curriculum. And she is now incorporating online creativity tools from BrainPOP to provide her students with different ways to demonstrate what they know. This increased familiarity with using technology tools for student production is a new byproduct of her increased comfort and valuation of such experiences.

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Teacher Readiness for Professional Learning on Computational Thinking (CT) Integration

Additional research goals

More rigorous examination of impact
Continued validation of tools and methodology
Development of a student companion readiness spectrum and assessment tools

Student competencies with CT vocabulary and concepts
Student applications of CT knowledge
Student self-efficacy regarding learning with enhanced CT skills

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PERSONALIZING ELEMENTARY TEACHER PROFESSIONAL LEARNING ON CT INTEGRATION BASED UPON UNDERSTANDING TEACHER READINESS

Julie A. Evans, Ed.D.

Project Tomorrow

jevans@tomorrow.org

949-609-4661

@JulieEvans_PT