Training Teachers in the Use of Programming and Computational Skills in the Classroom

Abstract

Schools have a responsibility to find ways to enable students to gain skills, such as sophisticated thinking, flexible problem solving, and communication skills. Computational thinking skills have been shown to be valuable for gaining the necessary skills to enter the 21st century workforce. STEM careers demand computational skills, but they are also necessary for all higher order thinking and computer-supported problem-solving careers. In general, teachers have left the teaching of computational skills to the technology or computer teachers at their schools. It has become apparent that all K-12 teachers must become adept at programming and computational thinking, and also they should be equipped to teach these skills to their students. The aim of this study was to identify current teacher knowledge of programming and computational thinking and develop their understanding of how it should be used in K-12 classrooms.

The researcher gathered quantitative data through an online survey to discover the current state of knowledge about computational thinking and its classroom use. Following the analysis of the data regarding teacher awareness, understanding, and use of computational thinking in their classrooms, the researcher developed recommendations for teacher education, including access to online materials to aid teachers in their use of computational thinking. Results suggested teachers would benefit from online training videos that could be integrated into teacher in service activities to instruct teachers in the use of coding and computational thinking in their science and math classroom instruction. Training teachers in programming and computational thinking has the benefit of making learning programming easier and fun, encourage teachers and students to learn programming, allow teachers to search and find other interesting programming websites, teach students how to program and play with code, and help students to improve their problem solving and thinking skills in a new and important way.