Precollegiate Teachers Research Articles

Computer Science beyond Coding: Partnering to Create Teacher Cybersecurity Microcredentials

Computer science, cybersecurity education, and microcredentials are becoming more pervasive in all levels of the educational system. The purpose of this study was partnering with precollegiate teachers: (1) to investigate the self-efficacy of 30 precollegiate teacher participants towards computer science before, during, and after three iterations of a cybersecurity microcredential, and (2) to make changes to the cybersecurity microcredential to improve its effectiveness. The authors explored what teachers need in a microcredential. The first Cohort (n = 5) took the microcredential sequence over 28 days in the summer of 2020, the second Cohort (n = 16) took it over 42 days in the fall of 2020, and the third Cohort (n = 9) took it over 49 days in the summer of 2021. The authors investigated three research questions and used a systems thinking approach while developing, evaluating, and implementing the research study. The researchers used quantitative methods in the collection of a self-efficacy subscale survey to assess whether the precollegiate teachers’ beliefs about computer science changed, and then used qualitative methods when conducting semi-structured teacher participant interviews to address the research questions. The findings show that the precollegiate teachers’ self-efficacy scores towards computer science increased, and that there are areas in need of attention, such as resources and implementation, when creating microcredentials. The implications of this research include the importance of purposefully crafting microcredentials and professional developments, including aspects of creating effective partnerships.

Integrated STEM for Teacher Professional Learning and Development: “I Need Time for Practice”

This study compares three pre-collegiate teacher professional learning and development (PLD) integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) experiences framed in astronomy. The study is set in the western United States (USA) and involves 60 pre-collegiate teachers (in the USA these are K-12 teachers) over the course of three years (June 2014–May 2017). During the PLDs, astronomy acted as a vehicle for pre-collegiate STEM teachers to increase their STEM content knowledge as well as create and implement integrated STEM classroom lessons. The authors collected quantitative and qualitative data to address five research questions and embraced social constructionism as the theoretical framework. Findings show that STEM pre-collegiate teachers are largely engaged with integrated STEM PLD content and embrace astronomy content and authentic science. Importantly, they need time to practice, interpret, translate, and use the integrated STEM content in classroom lessons. Recommendations for PLD STEM teacher support are provided. Implications of this study are vast, as gaps in authentic science, utilizing astronomy, PLD structure, and STEM integration are ripe for exploration.

Ants Go Marching—Integrating Computer Science into Teacher Professional Development with NetLogo

There is a clear call for pre-collegiate students in the United States to become literate in computer science (CS) concepts and practices through integrated, authentic experiences and instruction. Yet, a majority of in-service and pre-service pre-collegiate teachers (instructing children aged five to 18) lack the fundamental skills and self-efficacy to adequately and effectively integrate CS into existing curricula. In this study, 30 pre-collegiate teachers who represent a wide band of experience, grade-levels, and prior CS familiarity participated in a 16-day professional development (PD) course to enhance their content knowledge and self-efficacy in integrating CS into existing lessons and curricula. Using both qualitative and quantitative methodology, a social constructivist approach guided the researchers in the development of the PD, as well as the data collection and analysis on teacher content knowledge and perceptions through a mixed-methods study. Ultimately, participants were introduced to CS concepts and practices through NetLogo, which is a popular multi-agent simulator. The results show that although the pre-collegiate teachers adopted CS instruction, the CS implementation within their curricula was limited to the activities and scope of the PD with few adaptations and minimal systemic change in implementation behaviors.

TEACHING COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING THROUGH ROBOTICS: SCIENCE & ART FORM

Is the field of computer science and engineering a strict discipline or an art form? The answer is both. Computer science and engineering concepts are typically found almost exclusively in collegiate engineering and technology programs. Given its importance across the 21st Century workforce, arguably these concepts should be taught at all pre-collegiate grade levels. This study, specifically focused on pre-collegiate teachers’ increased confidence and subsequent use of robotics, indicates that designed professional development (PD) focused on simple computer programming approaches (e.g. LEGO MindStorm® kits) can propel pre-collegiate teachers to integrate new, challenging computer controlled robotics into their instruction. Surveys, content knowledge quizzes, and artifacts show teachers readily developed sufficient confidence and knowledge in producing lessons embedded with computer programming and robotics. Targeted classroom-ready instruction and modifiable computer programs appear to enhance pre-collegiate teacher knowledge of and confidence in robotics use. Considering overall self-rankings and content, pre-collegiate teacher pre-post scores increased. With these results, the authors argue why approaching computer science as both a strict science and art form is essential in PD. Key words: computer science, education, engineering, robotics and teaching.

Collaboration in History Teaching: Status, Problems, and Opportunities

SINCE THE RELEASE OF A Nation at Risk in 1983, a steady outpouring of critical studies has sensitized the teaching profession and the academic community to the need for reform in the nation's educational processes. One of the key ideas embraced by teacher-scholars at all levels of instruction involves the widely-recognized importance of ongoing and meaningful professional development that reinforces teachers' mastery of the content material in their disciplines. Professional historians, both precollegiate teachers and their counterparts at the postsecondary level, are increasingly united in their endorsement of content-based approaches to intellectual renewal. The intensity of the current standards debate lends new urgency to the call for career-long professional development opportunities that will enable teachers to remain connected to their disciplines, and the growing influence of the history standards underscores the need for closer ties among all history educators. Because of its central position between the secondary schools and baccalaureate institutions, the two-year institution is uniquely situated to foster greater communication within the scholarly community and refocus attention on the importance of content issues. While much missionary work lies ahead, a growing number of historians has come to understand that college and university faculty must be

The National History Standards and the Culture Wars of Our Times

Let me begin with a story. Several years ago, at the peak of the Bicentennial hoopla, I went to Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, as visiting faculty for a week during one of many summer institutes the NEH used to sponsor. In attendance were three dozen smart, precollegiate teachers of history; among my responsibilities was a keynote address?very like this one, I suppose, except that the audience was huge (students, university and precollegiate faculty, nonacademics) and the event staged in a pit-like auditorium. I was supposed to speak for about an hour at a podium that was about a foot too tall for me, under a spotlight. I had been asked to talk about how the framing generation had conceptualized the republic, liberty, and authority. To this day, I think it was one of the best speeches I have ever given. I began in the usual, framer-and-founder way, but then began talking about the idea of regenerative revolution: republics that stopped taking stock of themselves, stopped pressing at the edges of civic possibility, became jealous of liberty, and failed to scrutinize the body politic constantly for evidences of tyranny, would simply lose their way. Or so James Madison thought. So did Thomas Jefferson. And (somewhat later) so did Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass, William DuBois, Eugene Debs, Martin Luther King Jr., and other carriers of the idea of civic regeneration. I probably got a bit carried away. I said, for example, that the angry mobs gathered at town squares throughout the eastern seaboard to protest the secrecy of the Philadelphia convention may have got the republican idea exactly right. The enemy, after all, was tyranny and

Controversy Over The National History Standards

oped. Although Lynne V. Cheney has in sisted repeatedly that they are the UCLA Standards, nothing could be further from the truth. Teachers and scholars from all over the country participated in the creation of the books, and over thirty professional organizations, including the OAH, held one or two weekend meetings for focus groups to vet the various drafts through which the standards passed. Serving as a nexus for all this creative and reviewing activity was the National Council for History Standards com posed of twenty-nine members and headed by the directors of the National Center for History in the Schools which is based at UCLA. The council acted as both a sounding board and gatekeeper for the developing of the standards. Meeting several times a year, members got together frequently enough to be well informed of their progress, yet far enough away from the day-to-day workings of the contributing groups to require formal presentations at each of its meetings. This had two advantages: it insured a good deal more council oversight than rubber stamp ing; and it provided the creators of the standards with regular occasions for casting into formal presentations exactly what they were doing at the time. As you would expect, a group com posed of precollegiate teachers, history pro fessors, and professional administrators had many diverging points of view to present. Deciding on the proper periodization con sumed much of the council's time, as well it might when questions of emphasis, inclu sion, and interpretation get packaged into whether to start the United States Standards before Columbus, at 1492, or at 1607! But the mix of the council proved synergistic. Primary and secondary teachers brought hands-on teach ing experience to the deliberations, and the historians drew upon their research and writing to suggest and debate conceptual themes. Inter estingly enough, when there were strong differ ences of opinion, the disputants did not divide along the occupational axis of K through 12 and higher education. The hottest issue confronting the coun cil came when one of the reviewing groups, the American Historical Association, ex pressed the strong opinion that western civi lization should not be privileged in the presentation of historical criteria?the fif teen historical criteria that were to undergird the structure and approach of the history standards. Opponents of this position stressed the particular grounding of American stu dents in institutions of European origin. Since some schools have not yet developed world history courses and others resist its displacing western civilization, debates drew out the passionate convictions of council members, many of whom argued vigorously for a fresh approach to the history of the world which would highlight interactions, differences, and commonalities uncolored by the more traditional rise of the West orientation. Through several meetings it became clear that some members continued

APSA Guidelines for Teacher Training: Recommendations for Certifying Precollegiate Teachers of Civics, Government, and Social Studies

APSA Guidelines for Teacher Training: Recommendations for Certifying Precollegiate Teachers of Civics, Government, and Social Studies

APSA Guidelines for Teacher Training: Recommendations for Certifying Precollegiate Teachers of Civics, Government, and Social Studies

APSA Guidelines for Teacher Training: Recommendations for Certifying Precollegiate Teachers of Civics, Government, and Social Studies

New Instructional Materials for Pre-Collegiate Teachers Proposal

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New Instructional Materials for Pre-Collegiate Teachers Proposal

New Instructional Materials for Pre-Collegiate Teachers Proposal

Teacher Certification, Supply, and Demand

THREE factors in the area of teacher personnel are intimately related: the kind and amount of training required for entrance into the teaching profession, public opinion of teaching, and the supply of teachers. High standards of certification and no greater supply of trained teachers than can comfortably serve the nation help create favorable public opinion; favorable public opinion attracts candidates to the profession. Low or misunderstood standards of certification and too large or too small a supply in relation to demand are factors in creating unfavorable opinion of teaching as a profession. A discussion in Midland Schools (42) emphasizes these relationships. The following statements are based on a review of the published reports relating to the supply and certification of, and the demand for, precollegiate teachers; college teachers are dealt with elsewhere in this issue. These reports were disclosed thru the usual sources and thru an inquiry addressed to a large number of educators whose responsibilities acquaint them with this phase of teacher personnel. The references fall naturally into two major groups. In the main, the one pertains to certification and the other to supply and demand. Subdivisions will become evident in the following paragraphs.