Abstract:

The Commonwealth of Virginia was the first state in the United States to legislate computer science instruction as a mandatory component in all K-8 classrooms. The 2017 initiative requires efforts to build students' computer science knowledge and skills, supporting the state's impending computer science-related workforce needs. Unfortunately, schools face many challenges which prohibit introducing new, standalone CS courses to meet this need. When developing statewide learning standards for K-8 computer science education, the team of experts determined that integrating computer science with other subject areas would be the most equitable and efficient way forward. However, the challenges of integrating computer science into existing curriculum can be insurmountable without appropriately scaffolded support.

This session shares progress from the Reaching Across the Hallway project, a National Science Foundation-funded Discovery Research K-12 grant (#2010256). This project pairs middle school level (grades 6-8th) social studies and instructional technology teachers to use an interdisciplinary approach to integrate culturally relevant computer science skills and practices into social studies content and instruction. In its third year of implementation, the project team has taken an existing method of teacher training in computer science integration and has designed a responsive and scaffolded approach for the practitioner participants’ use in their rural classroom setting.

There are unique considerations for designing professional learning opportunities around integration for “new-to-computer science” teachers including many barriers, both systemic and self-imposed, that the training must address for successful classroom implementation. Training sessions in the first year of implementation that engaged grant participants in the practice of integration did not adequately address these individualized needs and sought to inform participants of a best way forward by building a comprehensive computer science background knowledge and providing a single access point and process for integration with social studies content. The new professional training design builds on knowledge gained from the first iteration and includes multiple learning opportunities, resources, and access points to more decisively support the development of participants’ ability and capacity to integrate computer science with social studies learning content.

This session highlights the changes that were made to the professional learning sequence based on preliminary data gathered from the project’s participants by the research team. It applies the educational theory and model of the Semantic Wave to demonstrate the importance of ‘unpacking’ and ‘repacking’ participant learning experiences through professional development explorations with integration. The session will outline the current training model that is used to move participants from high-density, conceptual ideas of content integration to a classroom implementation that is locally contextualized. The session’s attendees will be provided examples, resources, a support plan, and a training outline that is currently being implemented to build grant participants’ capacity for computer science integration in a core content area.

Keywords:

Computer science, computational thinking, computational literacy, semantic wave, learning theory, integration, computer science integration, professional development.