research-article

Preparing teachers is different than preparing software developers: [WiPSCE'14 keynote]

Author:

Mark GuzdialAuthors Info & Claims

WiPSCE '14: Proceedings of the 9th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education

Page 1

https://doi.org/10.1145/2670757.2676866

Published: 05 November 2014 Publication History

Abstract

Preparing teachers to teach computing is more than a matter of re-purposing existing courses for computer science majors. The tasks, knowledge, and skills of a computing teacher in primary or secondary school are dramatically different than that of a software developer. Computing teachers need pedagogical content knowledge, which includes awareness of common misconceptions, methods for diagnosing those misconceptions, and interventions to help students develop more robust conceptions. The job of a software developer requires knowledge and skills that are irrelevant for a computing teacher. To meet the worldwide need for computing teachers, we must design new kinds of learning opportunities that address the requirements of teachers.

In this talk, I will present the findings from our studies of the best practices of successful computing teachers, and describe our efforts in finding new ways to support teacher learning about computing. We find that our most successful teachers read and comment code all the time, but almost never write code. The most successful teachers know the content, but also know the most common misconceptions for that content. We find that on-line learning is challenging for teachers to fit into their lives, but we can make learning opportunities that teachers will stick with if we emphasize activities that are lower-cognitive than just writing code on a blank sheet of paper.

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Ericson BMoore SMorrison BGuzdial MGal-Ezer JSentance SVahrenhold J(2015)Usability and Usage of Interactive Features in an Online Ebook for CS TeachersProceedings of the Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education10.1145/2818314.2818335(111-120)Online publication date: 9-Nov-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2818314.2818335
Armoni M(2015)Impressions from the 9th WiPSCE conference, Berlin, November 2014ACM Inroads10.1145/27565596:2(29-30)Online publication date: 29-May-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2756559

Index Terms

Preparing teachers is different than preparing software developers: [WiPSCE'14 keynote]
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education
      2. Model curricula

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Published In

WiPSCE '14: Proceedings of the 9th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education

November 2014

150 pages

ISBN:9781450332507

DOI:10.1145/2670757

Conference Chairs:
Carsten Schulte
Freie Universität Berlin
,
Michael E. Caspersen
Aarhus University
,
Judith Gal-Ezer
The Open University Israel

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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SIGCSE: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 05 November 2014

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WiPSCE '14

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FU-BERLIN

WiPSCE '14: Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education

November 5 - 7, 2014

Berlin, Germany

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Overall Acceptance Rate 104 of 279 submissions, 37%

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Ericson BMoore SMorrison BGuzdial MGal-Ezer JSentance SVahrenhold J(2015)Usability and Usage of Interactive Features in an Online Ebook for CS TeachersProceedings of the Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education10.1145/2818314.2818335(111-120)Online publication date: 9-Nov-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2818314.2818335
Armoni M(2015)Impressions from the 9th WiPSCE conference, Berlin, November 2014ACM Inroads10.1145/27565596:2(29-30)Online publication date: 29-May-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2756559

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Cited By

Index Terms

Recommendations

Preparing secondary computer science teachers through an iterative development process

Preparing Pre-Service Teacher Candidates for the Praxis Exam: An Innovative Model of Blended Support

A Pre-service Pathway for Preparing Future AP CS Principles Teachers

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