Monday, April 11
4:15-4:45 PM
PDT
Shorebreak

An Investigation of In-Service Teachers' Perceptions and Development of Computational Thinking Skills in a Graduate Emerging Technologies Course

Full Paper (F2F) ID: 61015
  1. aaa
    Yi Jin
    Kennesaw State University
  2. aaa
    Jason Harron
    Kennesaw State University

Abstract: Computational Thinking (CT) skills are competencies that combine problem-solving and computational design to create useful solutions. While CT has gained in popularity over the past 15 years, teacher education programs have been slow to introduce these skills and help in-service teachers infuse computation. The authors recognized the lack of such preparation for in-service teachers and began the efforts to design targeted learning modules on CT and creative computing. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate in-service teachers’ perceptions and development of CT skills in a graduate emerging technologies course. Quantitative data were collected from the pre and post-CT tests and survey instruments. Descriptive analyses and paired sample t-tests were conducted. Results indicated that participants believed that they developed some aspects of their CT skills, such as problem-solving and creativity. Nonetheless, they reported that they had a decrease in collaborative learning and critical thinking skills. Furthermore, in general, in-service teachers increased their test scores after taking the course. These findings suggest that more research is needed to determine how to enhance collaborative learning and critical thinking skills when teaching CT as part of an asynchronous online graduate course. The authors also call on teacher educators to pay attention to in-service teachers’ knowledge gap of CT skills and select strategies for CT preparation accordingly.

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