Planning Grant: Integrating Computational Thinking Into Middle School Curriculum

弗吉尼亚理工学院和州立大学(VT)正在与亨里科县公立学区(HCPS)合作，提供规划补助金，以开发CE21项目，该项目将把计算思维(CT)活动纳入核心中学课程的当前教学实践。该项目将在现有课程中定位新的计算机技术活动，加强和发展课程区域和目标计算机技术区域之间的重叠，并随后在一个简短的强化教学单元中加强计算机技术内容。这笔规划赠款将用于通过创建、试行、测试和汇集教学干预和材料、学习CT进展的方法、跨VT和HCPS的管理安排和实践以及需要全面发展和监督的领域的顾问来为研究做准备。整个提案的主要研究问题是(1)整合计算机技术的方法是否适用于不同的教育环境、教师和学生，(2)该方法是否具有重大的负面影响(“表演停顿”)，以及(3)该方法是否被证明可在不同的学校系统中推广。弗吉尼亚大学计算机科学系在计算机思维、数学和科学教学方面与K-12和大学教育学的创新接触有很长的历史。HCPS是一个混合SES、多种族的学区，有50,000名学生，有10年的历史，将笔记本电脑的使用融入到6-12年级的教学中。HCPS政府已将CT确定为一个需要发展的领域，并得到了区学校委员会的支持。他们的愿景是在核心课程领域的每个年级的每个班级开展3-4项CT活动。项目负责人S的愿景，加上VT的CT专业知识，以及PI在开发和扩大教育研究方面的先前经验，使这个项目能够产生变革性的知识和实践。

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VT) is partnering with the Henrico County Public School District (HCPS) on a planning grant to develop a CE21 project that will build Computational Thinking (CT) activities into current instructional practices across core middle school curriculum. The project will locate nascent CT activities in the existing curriculum, reinforce and develop the overlap between the curricular area and the target CT area, and subsequently reinforce the CT content in a short, reinforcing instructional unit. This planning grant will be used to prepare for the research by creating, piloting, testing and assembling instructional interventions and materials, approaches to learning progressions in CT, management arrangements and practices across and within VT and HCPS, and advisors across the areas that will need development and oversight in full proposal. The overarching research questions for the full proposal are (1) whether the approach of integrating CT is viable across diverse educational environments, teachers and students, (2) whether the approach has significant negative entailments ("show stoppers"), and (3) whether the approach will prove to be scalable across different school systems. The CS department at VT has a long history of innovative engagement with K-12 as well as university pedagogy in computational thinking, mathematics, and science instruction. HCPS is a mixed SES, multi-racial district of 50,000 students, with a ten-year history of integrating laptop use into instruction in grades 6-12. The HCPS administration has identified CT as a needed area for growth and has the backing of the District School Board. They have a vision of 3-4 CT activities in every class in every grade across core curricular areas. HCPS?s vision plus VT's CT expertise and the PI's prior experience with the development and scaling up of educational research position this project to produce transformative knowledge and practices.