Measuring the Effect of Continuous Professional Development on Elementary Teachers’ Self-efficacy to Teach Coding and Computational Thinking
Abstract:
Interest in coding education has exploded in the past five years, especially in elementary and early secondary education. Teachers who are largely new to coding are expected to guide entire student bodies through the fundamentals of coding and computational thinking. But little is known about which coding and computational thinking (CT) concepts teachers feel most comfortable with and which concepts they struggle with. This study describes 127 elementary coding teachers’ changes in their beliefs about teaching coding and CT as they participated in year-long continuous professional development. Novice elementary coding teachers demonstrated most growth in their self-efficacy for teaching sequences, algorithms and loops. They were less secure in their knowledge of conditionals, variables, and functions. For computational thinking, teachers were most confident in their ability to identify patterns, think algorithmically, understand logic, and evaluate outcomes, showing less growth with decomposition and abstraction.
Citation Information:
Rich, P., Mason, S., & O’Leary, J. (2021). Measuring the effect of continuous professional development on elementary coding teachers’ beliefs to teach coding and computational thinking. Computers & Education, 168(7), 1-15.\
