LEVERAGING VIRTUAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TO PROMOTE COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION FOR MULTILINGUAL STUDENTS

Elementary teachers have little to no professional development in teaching computer science (CS), and there is currently no multiple subject authorization dedicated to the discipline. Very often, elementary teachers who implement CS lessons are learning the subject while teaching their established curriculum. This chapter describes the Elementary Computing for All initiative, a federally funded collaboration between researchers and practitioners designed to develop, implement, test, and refine professional development (PD) that promotes CS for multilingual students in elementary grades. To train participating teachers, we developed an intensive, in-person, weeklong Summer Institute designed to train teachers in the use of CS education for multilingual students. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic, the PD was shifted to a virtual format. This chapter discusses the design and implementation of a virtual PD that utilized emerging technology tools including a learning management system, synchronous and asynchronous sessions, existing online CS training, collaborative activities, staggered scheduling, and networking opportunities. The chapter also describes findings that demonstrate that providing flexible teacher PD with built-in support helps teachers provide quality CS instruction to multilingual students. Furthermore, these practices can be applied to face-to-face and hybrid PD settings, providing individualized support for new CS teachers. © 2023 Taylor and Francis.

Comparison of CS Middle-School Instruction during Pre-Pandemic, Early-Pandemic and Mid-Pandemic School Years

In 2020, the world confronted an unprecedented event affecting education globally: COVID-19. Events that disrupt education are not new;Homelessness or trauma negatively impact education at an individual level, whereas war stops education completely. This event is unique in that it caused the cessation of in-person instruction for all but with a rapid transition to remote instruction. In this study, we explore how the COVID-19 pandemic affected instruction of Scratch Encore Curriculum, a Scratch curriculum typically used in middle grades with students between 10-14 years old. We analyzed a variety of data sources, including partner classroom-level data as well as anonymous download data. We found that instruction halted abruptly in the United States at the beginning of the March lockdown, with no further instruction that spring. With the introduction of online instructional materials, instruction resumed to normal levels during the 2020-21 school year (which was remote instruction for much of the year). In addition, students completed projects with similar accuracy and completeness during remote instruction as compared with in-person instruction prior to the pandemic. © 2022 ACM.