Abstract
The role of teachers is very important for the educational utilization of Computational Thinking (CT) and its integration in education. As with any innovation, CTs' successful integration considerably depends on the perceptions, beliefs and attitudes of the teachers who will be asked to implement it. The study of these characteristics, concerning Computer Science (CS) teachers in Greece, was the objective of a survey research, theoretically supported by the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Findings reveal intense interest of participants on CT and their willingness to participate in professional development programs. Participants also reveal misconceptions of CT and negative attitudes toward its integration in education, that require further study and discussion. The researchers propose directions for the design and implementation of appropriate teachers training programs, while the findings can be exploited to support any effort of integrating CT in education.
Highlights
STEM education was placed in the center of interest in many countries, lately, resulting on an increased interest on Computer Science/Informatics integration in education, as a basic component of the STEM educational approach (Henderson et al, 2007)
The methods adopted in our research aimed to identify groupings of teachers’ attitudes and beliefs towards Computational Thinking (CT), to subsequently guide the treatment of their possible misconceptions and mistaken beliefs and plan their effective preparation, through proper training programs, for the integration of CT in their teaching
We will refer to this meaning using the term perceptions, as the teachers of the sample, at the time of the survey, had not had attended any formal training on CT to elaborate the understanding of the concept
Summary
STEM education was placed in the center of interest in many countries, lately, resulting on an increased interest on Computer Science/Informatics integration in education (the terms Computer Science and Informatics are considered synonymous in the present context), as a basic component of the STEM educational approach (Henderson et al, 2007). CT is emerging as a key competence for future scientific and technological progress and the need to familiarize students with computational ideas in the context of basic education is urgent (CSTA and ISTE, 2011). Adopting this view, numerous initiatives have been developed internationally to. As Cuny (2011) argues, proper training and support of teachers is a bigger challenge than the development of an appropriate Curriculum, emphasizing the need to prepare teachers with the aim to integrate CT in their daily pedagogical activities (Lye and Koh, 2014)
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