Designing Professional Development to Foster Mastery and Interest for Integrating Computer Science into Mathematics Classes

到目前为止，美国大约有一半的州已经采用了K-12计算机科学(CS)标准。然而，许多学区负担不起独立的CS课程，因为它们缺乏资金、课程时间和/或合格教师池来聘请。将CS整合到现有课程(例如，数学、科学、社会研究)是一个很有前途的选择。与其把计算机科学作为一门并非所有学生都选的选修课教授，不如在核心课程中更公平地教授它。此外，学区可以通过这一战略节省资源。集成还展示了计算如何不是内向的，而是可以影响其他学科的。遗憾的是，很少有研究指导各区学生如何在集成环境中学习CS，或者教师如何获得信心、兴趣和技能来教授集成计算内容。该项目是Bootstrap和俄克拉荷马州中等教育部门的合作项目，正在将CS整合到俄克拉荷马州8年级和9年级的数学框架中来研究这些问题。由于将CS引入学校教育的这些挑战在全国范围内普遍存在，该项目可以作为应对这些挑战的典范。该项目还在为CS新手教师创造有效的专业发展，以及这些教师如何发展CS教学能力的研究成果。该项目建立在俄克拉何马州现有的研究-实践者伙伴关系(RPP)的基础上，该伙伴关系一直在研究如何准备数学教师开始将计算融入他们的课堂。该奖项扩展了这项正在进行的工作，使教师准备更深入、更广泛地与135名教师整合计算。利用设计研究、教育心理学的成果和我们到目前为止的发现，该项目正在(A)开发一个两阶段的混合专业发展计划，以培养教师对计算的信心和兴趣(包括专门为支持农村教师而设计的变体)，(B)将国家数学框架中的课程改编为包括标准一致的计算任务，(C)研究教师在整合思维方面的变化过程，以及(D)开始研究对学生的影响。这项混合方法的研究利用了对教师的调查和纵向采访、课堂录音、学生作业样本和学生评估数据。该项目由CS for All：Research and RPPS计划资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Roughly half of the US states have adopted K-12 Computer Science (CS) standards to date. Many districts, however, cannot afford standalone CS classes because they lack funding, available time in the curriculum, and/or a pool of qualified teachers to hire from. Integrating CS into existing courses (e.g., math, science, social studies) is a promising alternative. Rather than computer science being taught as an elective that not all students take, it could be taught more equitably in core courses. Moreover, districts could save resources through this strategy. Integration also showcases how computing is not inward-looking but can impact other disciplines. Unfortunately, very little research guides districts on how students learn CS in integrated contexts or how teachers gain confidence, interest, and skill to teach integrated computing content. This project, a partnership between Bootstrap and the Oklahoma Department of Secondary Education, is studying these questions in the context of integrating CS into Oklahoma's 8th and 9th grade math framework. Because these challenges to introducing CS to schooling are pervasive nationwide, this project can serve as a model for meeting these challenges. The project is also producing research findings on creating effective professional development for teachers new to CS and how these teachers develop their capacity for CS instruction.This project builds on an existing Research-Practitioner Partnership (RPP) in Oklahoma that has been studying how to prepare math teachers to start integrating computing into their classes. This award expands this ongoing work to prepare teachers to integrate computing in more depth and more extensively, with 135 teachers. Using design research, results from educational psychology, and our findings to date, this project is (a) developing a 2-stage, hybrid professional development program that fosters teachers' confidence and interest in computing (including a variant specifically designed to support rural teachers), (b) adapting lessons from the state math framework to include standards-aligned computing tasks, (c) studying teachers' process of change in thinking about integration, and (d) beginning to study impacts on students. The mixed-methods research draws on surveys and longitudinal interviews with teachers, recordings of classrooms, samples of student work, and data on student assessments. This project is funded by the CS for All: Research and RPPs program.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.