Abstract
The purpose of this study is to identify secondary computer science (CS) teachers’ pedagogical needs in the United States. Participants were selected from secondary teachers who were teaching CS courses or content in a school setting (public, private, or charter) or an after-school program during the time of data collection. This is a qualitative study using CS teachers’ discussions in Computer Science Teachers Association’s (CSTA) email listserv, responses to open-ended questions in a questionnaire, and discussions in follow-up interviews. Content analysis, thematic analysis and constant comparative method of qualitative data analysis were used to analyze the data. The most common pedagogical need expressed was learning student-centered strategies for teaching CS and guiding students’ understanding with the use of scaffolding and team-management strategies in CS classes. Furthermore, addressing students’ beliefs in CS and their preconceptions in math and reading were important factors influencing teaching CS effectively in secondary schools.
Highlights
Within the United States, more stakeholders have pushed for increased opportunities for computer science (CS) for K-12 students (Code.org Advocacy Coalitian, 2019; Smith, 2016)
The present study proposes that K-12 teachers may have crucial needs in pedagogy (Hazzan, Lapidot, & Ragonis, 2015; Yadav et al, 2016) and any efforts aiming to prepare CS teachers, initially, need to identify CS teachers’ pedagogical needs and answer the following research question: 1. What pedagogical needs do U.S secondary school teachers share to better teach computer science classes or content in their classes?
The pedagogical needs were identified from CS teachers' communications in both the listserv and the questionnaire and expanded on with the interview data
Summary
Within the United States, more stakeholders have pushed for increased opportunities for computer science (CS) for K-12 students (Code.org Advocacy Coalitian, 2019; Smith, 2016). Studies have shown that many secondary CS teachers express needing more support beyond the certification programs and professional development programs provided (Giannakos, Doukakis, Pappas, Adamopoulos, & Giannopoulou, 2015; Qian, Hambrusch, Yadav, & Gretter, 2018). This leads to the problem of what CS teachers’ challenges and needs are to help them improve their craft of teaching CS
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