This CPATH project creates new pathways for undergraduate education majors to become computer science teachers and to obtain sound foundations in computational thinking. It includes a joint effort between faculty in the departments of computer science and education to create a Computer Science (CS) Endorsement program based on the Educational Computing Standards set by the International Society for Technology in Education. The pathways to the endorsement program will be targeted to diverse student groups: all education majors will be exposed to modules focused on computational thinking, science education majors will be able to fulfill general course requirements while taking courses towards the endorsement, and students transferring into education from a STEM discipline will be able to build on their background.
The proposed effort builds on existing courses and teacher education. Modules on computational thinking that highlight the pervasiveness of computational metaphors in topics like reasoning, knowledge construction, and problem solving are to be integrated into existing courses. Two new courses are to be developed jointly: a CS Methods course with an associated teaching practicum in computer science and a course in Great Issues in Computer Science. These courses provide students with pedagogical and content knowledge experiences preparing them to effectively teach computer science. The team plans to run a workshop to bring together educators and computer scientists with a focus on incorporating computation in secondary teacher education and exploring the establishment of computer science licensure standards.
Intellectual Merit: The design of a CS methods course and the associated collaboration between education and CS faculty should result in a better understanding of how to effectively teach secondary computer science, an urgent need in the nation's high schools. Selected material from the methods course will also benefit computer science faculty teaching introductory courses. Education students satisfying their practical training component in CS introductory courses will increase awareness of good practices and how to effectively teach introductory CS topics. The introduction of a Great Issues course will be of benefit and interest to a broad set of students. Thus the project has the potential to provide a national model for secondary computer science education and contribute to the sparse intellectual core currently existing in this area.
Broader Impact: The goal of the project is to increase the number of undergraduate education majors having taken CS courses and obtaining a CS Teaching Endorsement. This increase should translate into an increase in the number of future teachers who are qualified to teach computer science in high schools, are knowledgeable about computer science as a career, and who have an understanding of how the pervasive nature of computation impacts and changes our society. As a multiplier effect, qualified high school teachers teaching computer science should increase the number of high school students receiving a first computer science course. This increased contact is an important part in the ongoing national effort to raise interest in computer science and to educate a more computationally competent and proficient workforce.
Objectives: The objective of Project CS4EDU (Computer Science for Education) is to create new pathways for undergraduate education majors to become computationally educated secondary teachers. The created pathways include a wide range of curriculum components in the form of a new course on "Methods for Teaching CS", course modules on computational thinking and their integration them into education courses, a new course on "Contemporary Issues in Computing", and incorporating these activities into a Computer Science Teaching Endorsement. Merit: Computer scientists and computationally educated students are vital to building a globally competitive workforce for the 21st century. Creating pathways and opportunities for teacher education majors to become computationally educated secondary teachers is crucial to the success of educating and motivating such a workforce. Our effort leads to building teacher and student interest in computer science in high school and constitutes a long-term investment that will pay off for many years to come. Accomplishments: The project has (i) developed educational material that highlights Computer Science as a creative discipline that enables new fields and discoveries; (ii) developed a Computer Science methods course giving future teachers the pedagogical and content knowledge to effectively teach computer science and to think like a computer scientist. The methods course also addresses how to effectively teach concepts challenging to high schools students; (iii) designed new pathways to a teaching endorsement such that diverse student groups are reached and engaged. The targeted student groups include education majors, exposing them to course modules focused on Computer Science topics, as well as science majors, enabling them to fulfill general course requirements while working towards the endorsement, (iv) engaged the community in workshops that brought together teachers, education researchers and computer scientists establishing new currents of teaching practice and new research foci. The project’s success was built on a productive collaboration between Computer Science and Education faculty. The collaboration has been recognized in multiple ways including organizing a workshop "Challenges and Opportunities in Conducting Educational Research in the Computer Science Classroom", at the 2012 SIGCSE Conference. Impact: The project has developed material for training teachers to teach Computer Science and how computational thinking can be incorporated into education courses. This material is available at the CS4EDU website, http://cs4edu.cs.purdue.edu/start. The Computer Science Methods course developed by the project team has served as a model for similar efforts at other institutions. It has also had an impact on the teaching methods and approaches used in introductory Computer Science courses at Purdue. A detailed description of the methods course is available at http://cs4edu.cs.purdue.edu/mt2012f:start. The Indiana Department of Education has recognized the Computer Science Teaching Endorsement developed by the project.
