Cultivating Interest and Competencies in Computing Authentic Experiences and Design Factors (2021) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
6 Computing Experiences in Schools
6 Computing Experiences in Schools
Pages 99-120
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 99... ...
The compulsory nature of schooling, however, can also make it difficult to create opportunities that balance both professional and personal authenticity. In this chapter, the committee considers computing education in schools in the United States.
|
From page 100... ...
. Specifically: • 26 percent of elementary schools offer instruction in computer programming, • 38 percent of middle schools offer instruction in computer programming, • 53 percent of high schools offer one or more courses in CS, • High-poverty high schools (26%)
|
From page 101... ...
This makes it difficult to know the extent to which students' learning experiences in computing reflect professional and personal authenticity as described by the committee. The conditions of school facilities, as well as whether learners have a ccess to technical resources at home, also impact CS learning and instruction independently of the particular course or learning experience.
|
From page 102... ...
Members of this growing local community of educators attended the Exploratory Computer Science (ECS) professional development offered for Los Angeles teachers in 2010, and deciding that it was an ideal fit for Chicago Public Schools, successfully obtained a series of grant awards from the National Science Foundation to initially offer, then scale, this course and associated professional development in Chicago.
|
From page 103... ...
In fact, widespread efforts to provide computing experiences in the elementary grades are relatively recent. As a result, there is limited research on students' learning experiences in computing in K–5 classrooms.
|
From page 104... ...
. All four participating elementary classroom teachers in the study chose to integrate computing lessons into science and mathematics curriculum (Israel et al., 2015a)
|
From page 105... ...
Middle School As noted above, only 38 percent of middle schools offer instruction in computing. Greater than 80 percent of middle school mathematics and science teachers report never integrating coding into their classes (see Table 7.1; Banilower et al, 2018)
|
From page 106... ...
Computing in Elementary and Middle School Summary In sum, less than half of schools across the country are providing obust r opportunities to learn computing at the elementary and middle school levels. Integrating computing into other courses, such as mathematics and science, seems like a promising approach.
|
From page 107... ...
. Advanced Placement Courses in Computer Science In general, AP courses, including CS courses, are offered by the College Board to provide advanced learning opportunities at the secondary school level.
|
From page 108... ...
. Though the AP CSA course has been offered for decades, until recently the number of test takers was relatively low compared to other AP mathematics and science courses, with only 15,000 learners taking the test a decade ago (College Board, 2008)
|
From page 109... ...
. Computer Science Principles In a concerted effort to broaden participation in computing, the College Board and the National Science Foundation joined together in 2008 to design, develop, and implement CSP, described as a more acces sible, ollege-level CS course (Cuny, 2015; Sax et al., 2020)
|
From page 110... ...
The goal is to promote equity by engaging a broad range of learners in an inclusive approach to CS to build foundational knowledge about CS. Currently offered in schools across 34 states and Puerto Rico, ECS enrolls about 55,000 learners each year.2 The ECS course originated in Los Angeles and demographic data from Los Angeles suggests that the ethnic and racial representation matches that of Los Angeles learners more generally, and 43 percent of ECS learners in Los Angeles are girls.3 These numbers, along with evidence in growth of student efficacy, increased interest in computing, and sense of belonging gains, suggest that this course may successfully engage girls and Black and Latinx learners in CS (Dettori et al., 2016; Goode and Margolis, 2011)
|
From page 111... ...
A study that accompanied the introduction of e-textiles unit in 17 ECS classrooms in Los Angeles detailed how teachers adjusted their pedagogical practices to support creativity, connection, and culturally responsive student learning. The study mapped out how rich and equitable teaching practices in computing and making can move learners from initial engagement into more complex projects that deepened their learning experiences.
|
From page 112... ...
These high school courses, funded in part by federal Perkins funding, vary greatly between states and schools, yet often have an applied focus to computing curriculum. E xamples of these types of courses include professional certification on specific technical competencies that transfer directly to professional work settings such as Networking, Software Engineering, or Cybersecurity.
|
From page 113... ...
program that provides immersive professional development and set of resources to encourage school counselors to understand and advocate for increased CS learning opportunities for learners at their schools (Hug and Krauss, 2016)
|
From page 114... ...
. In their study of learners learning computing in a bilingual middle school classroom, Vogel et al.
|
From page 115... ...
In the NSSME+ there are also measures of teachers' confidence in teaching computing. Elementary and Middle School Teachers In the United States, fewer than 1 in 4 elementary teachers reported having experience or just a "crash course" in computing before they began teaching computing to their learners.
|
From page 116... ...
, the primary place for teachers to learn about teaching computing takes place in curriculumspecific professional development sessions. Research on teacher preparation for teaching CS courses highlights the importance of sustained, long-term professional learning experiences that support the emerging content-related and pedagogical needs of teachers (Goode, Margolis, and Chapman, 2014; 5 These topics include algorithms and programming, impacts of computing, computing systems, data and analysis, and networks and the Internet.
|
From page 117... ...
. Yet for most schools, professional development opportunities for CS teachers are not plentiful, with only 19 percent of high school teachers noting that they had access to local professional development opportunities in their school or district (see Table 6-5; Banilower et al., 2018)
|
From page 118... ...
21 (2.3) NOTE: PD = professional development.
|
From page 119... ...
. SUMMARY Formal educational experiences are important settings for engaging learners in authentic computing experiences that have the potential to influence interest and competencies for computing.
|
From page 120... ...
Overall, this chapter has considered how professionally and personally authentic experiences with computing have been offered in United States schools across K–12 settings. The review highlighted that although course offerings are variable and inequitably distributed across schools, there are also promising practices and approaches that support more foundational approaches to bring computing education to all learners.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.