Increasing Massachusetts Partnerships for Advancing Computational Thinking in Pre-K-5 Classrooms

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This project aims to broaden pre-K-5 students' participation in standards-aligned and culturally responsive computational thinking (CT). The research team will establish a research-practice partnership (RPP) that will co-plan and co-design multidistrict efforts to develop standards-aligned and culturally responsive professional development (PD) that integrates CT into the PK-5 curriculum and instruction. The populations served are pre-K-5 students and teachers in Central Massachusetts. The project will connect a diverse team of researchers, policymakers, professional development coaches, and educators with diverse expertise on pre-K-5 CT teaching and learning. Following guidelines for effective partnerships and guided by Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR) and Participatory Research, the project has four phases: 1) Build relationships within the RPP. 2) Identify problems of practice, and conduct in-school research. 3) Co-create PD in an iterative process of creating-testing-revising solutions to the identified problems. 4) Disseminate results and sustain the RPP.The central research question asks what factors enable and hinder successful collaborations between institutions of higher education, school districts, and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to address problems of practice around culturally and linguistically responsive CT teaching and learning in pre-K-5 classrooms. The RPP will develop shared understanding about the specific challenges that pre-K and elementary teachers and administrators from rural, urban, and town districts face concerning teaching CT to diverse populations. Such a knowledge base is essential to the development of CT-focused PD to empower teachers to integrate CT into curricula in accessible and meaningful ways. Using the RPP frameworks of mutualism and DBIR approaches of systematic and repeated inquiry, project members will identify and research problems of practice and possible solutions and strategies in their context. Analyses of the principles and processes will add to the body of knowledge about implementation research on building capacity of RPPs to identify and address problems of practice on culturally and linguistically responsive PD on CT integration for pre-K-5. 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.