Professional Development as a Bridge between Teacher Competencies and Computational Thinking Integration

Abstract

Based on the centrality of teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of computational thinking, this chapter provides a descriptive review of teacher competencies necessary for computational thinking integration and what professional learning aiming at developing these teacher competencies looks like. In this respect, we identified four competency areas: (1) conceptual foundations of computational thinking; (2) planning computational thinking integration; (3) facilitating computational thinking integration; and (4) participating in a professional network of educators and experts. In order to enhance these competencies, we proposed three recommendations that would inform teacher professional development efforts: (1) support teachers to build an understanding of what computational thinking is in general and what computational thinking means to their discipline; (2) align with teachers’ content- and teaching-related needs and support teachers how to plan and implement computational thinking-integrated learning experiences; and (3) provide continuous support through professional learning communities and online professional development. Finally, we provided directions for future research.