Rural Elementary Teachers’ Computational Thinking Self-Efficacy Through Community-Based Citizen Science

Abstract

ABSTRACT While both citizen science engagements and computational thinking practices can mutually support student ownership in the science classroom, both face similar challenges to adoption in that they require teachers to openly position themselves as learners alongside their students. This dual role—as a teacher and as a learner—poses self-efficacy challenges that may preclude teachers from exploring these important pedagogical tools and perspectives in their classrooms. We present a cross-case analysis of three experienced teachers in rural elementary and middle schools as they integrate computational thinking in a year-long, student-led community-based citizen science project. Drawing from interview data, we illustrate how teachers’ capacity to embrace their role of co-learners alongside their students redefined “mastery experiences” of teaching self-efficacy. Specifically, the case teachers evaluated their successful use of computational thinking within the community-based citizen science program in ways that valued student curiosity and discovery over mastery of content. In this way, their self-efficacy for using computational thinking developed when they saw and shared these activities in themselves and their students. We further illustrate how contextual contributors of the professional development program and their rural schools and districts contributed to their comfort in experimenting with new instructional approaches, which helped them to build the mastery experiences that fueled further exploration of computational thinking within their classroom’s community-based citizen science investigations.