research-article

Complexities in Computer Science Teaching Attitudes and Beliefs: Findings of a Baseline Study of Elementary School Educators

Authors:

Maverick Berner,

Heidi Williams,

Christine Thorp,

D. Cenk ErdilAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE 2023: Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1

Pages 66 - 72

https://doi.org/10.1145/3545945.3569746

Published: 03 March 2023 Publication History

Abstract

Teacher dispositions have strong empirical and theoretical ties to teacher motivation, professional choices, and classroom practices. The attitudes and beliefs of teachers can mediate students' access to and experience with computer science (CS) instruction. This paper presents a baseline study to illuminate initial characteristics, beliefs, and experiences with CS of an elementary school teaching population in multiple districts across two states. As part of their onboarding to a large CS outreach project, U.S. teachers (N = 791) from partnering elementary schools (N = 28) completed the T-ABC, a survey instrument designed to measure teachers' beliefs about CS education, growth-mindset and self-efficacy. Prior CS professional development experiences were associated with statistically significant differences in the CS Beliefs and Self-Efficacy dimensions of the T-ABC. We present and discuss an additional principal component analysis producing a seven factor model, with psychometric overview of factor extraction and loading. Further we begin to define emergent factors such as teacher determination, teacher fear, and epistemologically confused positivity from this analysis. Identification and measurement of teacher dispositions enables further analysis of how teacher beliefs may support or hinder effective practice in CS instruction, how teacher populations may differ, and how identified dispositions may change with exposure to various CS learning experiences.

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Cited By

Ni LBausch GThomas-Cappello EMartin FFeliciano B(2024)Creating Apps for Community and Social Good: Preliminary Learning Outcomes from a Middle School Computer Science CurriculumACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/365867424:3(1-26)Online publication date: 24-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3658674

Index Terms

Complexities in Computer Science Teaching Attitudes and Beliefs: Findings of a Baseline Study of Elementary School Educators
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. K-12 education

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cover image ACM Conferences

SIGCSE 2023: Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1

March 2023

1481 pages

ISBN:9781450394314

DOI:10.1145/3545945

General Chairs:
Maureen Doyle
Northern Kentucky University, USA
,
Ben Stephenson
University of Calgary, Canada
,
Program Chairs:
Brian Dorn
University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA
,
Leen-Kiat Soh
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA
,
Lina Battestilli
North Carolina State University, USA

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Published: 03 March 2023

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SIGCSE 2023: The 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

March 15 - 18, 2023

Toronto ON, Canada

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Cited By

Ni LBausch GThomas-Cappello EMartin FFeliciano B(2024)Creating Apps for Community and Social Good: Preliminary Learning Outcomes from a Middle School Computer Science CurriculumACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/365867424:3(1-26)Online publication date: 24-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3658674

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