Collaborative Research: Supporting Rural Paraprofessional Educators and their Students with Computer Science Professional Learning and Expansively Framed Curriculum

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With the call to provide more computer science instruction to all students, school districts are increasingly relying on a range of educators beyond the classroom teacher to help teach computer science. In rural and small towns and in districts with limited budgets, this responsibility is often assigned to part-time paraprofessional educators, especially in elementary schools. These individuals typically are hired from the local community and do not have formal training in computer science or pedagogy. As teaching computer science represents a substantial expansion and shift in their responsibilities, districts are seeking ways to help these elementary school paraprofessional educators learn to teach introductory computing concepts as well as provide them with curriculum and teaching resources. This research-practice partnership addresses the training and curriculum needs for elementary schools in a rural serving district. This project will develop a model for supporting paraprofessional educators’ learning in order to enhance their ability to teach computer science. The model will also inform the development of instructional materials that build on and connect to existing classroom-based mathematics instruction such that mathematical concepts are revisited and strengthened in the context of computing instruction. As the model builds on a widely used and standards-based curriculum, it can be used by many other school districts. The evolving nature and dynamics of the partnership itself will also be iteratively examined and refined in order to generate knowledge of how research-practice partnerships can be better structured for equitable participation and continuous improvement.This project will advance theory and knowledge in three different areas: 1) the design and study of a learning model for underserved and underprepared paraprofessional educators in rural areas who are tasked with introducing students to computer science; 2) the design and implementation of a curriculum that integrates classroom mathematics instruction with computer lab instruction using a model of expansive framing; 3) the study and documentation of the dynamics and influence of researcher and practitioner partnerships, which are increasingly becoming prevalent in educational research and as a school improvement model. A combination of research surveys, video records of instruction, paraprofessional collaboration and learning sessions, and interviews with stakeholders and educators will be collected. These data will be used for research and for iteratively improving the design of paraprofessional learning experiences, curricula, and the partnership structure. Over 20 paraprofessionals and their 500 rural students will gain new skills related to computer science during the course of this project. This project is funded by the CS for All 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.