Abstract:

As computer programming is widely being introduced in school curricula around the world, many teacher training initiatives are being put into practice to address the competence needs linked to that endeavor. The imperative digitalization catalyzed by governments’ response to the Covid-19 emergency brought about an unexpected plot twist largely affecting most professional development efforts. After rapidly reprioritizing resources toward urgent matters of online teaching, some teachers also embraced the new opportunities that distance courses offered for their own education. Findings from these experiences are here synthesized to examine how teacher training in computer programming could be improved to better suit the affordances and constraints of online courses. The principal themes, problems, approaches, and solutions that emerged from this small-scale qualitative study are contrasted with the prevalent ideas identified in the literature, such that in blended and hybrid learning. Among the common characteristics with these earlier paradigms, issues of idle time, asynchronousity, and unreliable tools were highlighted but also similar advantages regarding autonomy and equity. A particular factor that distinguished the case of online programming training for educators was the gap between the learning that teachers themselves experienced during the programming course and the learning facilitation that they were expected to provide for their pupils in a school environment. This gap was not only related to the different visions and purposes for their education but also and to a larger extent due to different contexts, including assessment traditions and subject separation. This work provides hindsight towards an understanding of the significance and nature of learning programming for teaching and the challenges and benefits associated with adapting to online settings.

Keywords:

Programming, teacher training, TPD, coding, online learning, off-campus, micro:bit, mathematics, programming, k-12, digitalization.