Expanding a Statewide Pathway for CS Teacher Certification: A Curriculum Model for Secondary Education Teacher Candidates

阿拉巴马大学(UA)将在阿拉巴马州的六所高等教育机构(阿拉巴马州立大学、杰克逊维尔州立大学、伯明翰阿拉巴马大学、亨茨维尔阿拉巴马大学、阿拉巴马大学和南阿拉巴马大学)以及其他RPP合作伙伴(如阿拉巴马州的高中计算机科学教育工作者和阿拉巴马州教育部)之间建立研究人员-从业者伙伴关系(RPP)。扩大K-12计算机科学(CS)教师专业发展的国家计划必须包括(职前)未来教师候选人(TCS)，远远超出目前仅培训在职教师的模式。该项目将有助于虚拟在线教学的一种新方法，使在职前的技术培训成为有资质的未来技术教育工作者，他们将向他们的学生介绍计算思维技能和概念。参与者技术培训将从六个伙伴机构的不同候选人库中招聘，多样性、公平性和包容性主题将成为两门课程的基础。该项目是由以下核心CSforAll需求推动的：将有效的专业发展(PD)努力扩展到一大批新的CS教师--他们中的许多人几乎没有正式的CS准备；为教师PD建立认证方案和服务途径；建立在线和混合PD方法，为教师和辅导员创建强大的PD材料；并评估PD模型在教学知识、教学方法、计算思维、课堂公平和学生结果方面的有效性。为了满足这些需求，本项目的实施、研究和评估将集中于扩展我们现有的知识和影响，这些知识和影响来自于在其现有的数学教师培训计划中培训中学数学教师培训的本地成功和最近完成的实施。全州范围的扩展和实施将扩大我们合作机构的TCS的地理覆盖面，并将招聘范围扩大到所有中等教育的重点领域(例如，科学、数学、职业技术，甚至是中学教师准备中的社会科学和其他教学领域)。该项目的具体目标包括：(1)招募和招收最多90名中学教师，以开始CS准备途径，以寻求在其中学教学学科中增加CS认可；(2)产生72名获得CS证书的中学TCS，其中27人将获得AP计算机科学原理(CSP)的课程特定认证；(3)产生45名全套CS科目认可的中学教师；(4)利用RPP模式，该项目将提供准备机会，使TCS能够在毕业后准备教授CS，包括为获得CS的完全资格做准备；以及(5)在六个高等教育合作院校扩展和颁布针对中学技术控制的所有学科的UA校园计算机科学课程，提供一个公开分享所有开发资源的机会，并帮助合作机构引导自己的计算机科学教育努力。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。

The University of Alabama (UA) will form a Researcher-Practitioner Partnership (RPP) among six Alabama higher-education institutions (Alabama State University, Jacksonville State University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Alabama in Huntsville, University of Alabama, and University of South Alabama), as well as other RPP partners (e.g., high school Computer Science educators across Alabama, and the Alabama State Department of Education). A national plan for expanding K-12 Computer Science (CS) teacher professional development must include (pre-service) future teacher candidates (TCs) well beyond the current models of only training in-service teachers. This project will contribute to a new approach for virtual online instruction that prepares pre-service TCs as credentialed future CS educators who will introduce their students to computational thinkingskills and concepts. Participant TCs will be recruited from a diverse pool of candidates across the six partner institutions and topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion will be a foundation of the two-course pathway. The project is driven by the following core CSforAll needs: scaling effective professional development (PD) efforts to a large cohort of new CS teachers--many of whom have little to no formal CS preparation; establishing certification programs and preservice paths for teacher PD; establishing online and hybrid PD approaches, creating robust PD materials for teachers and facilitators; and assessing the effectiveness of PD models with respect to content knowledge, pedagogy, computational thinking, classroom equity, and student outcomesTo address these needs, the implementation, research and evaluation of this project will focus on expanding our existing knowledge and impacts from a locally successful and recently completed implementation for training Secondary Mathematics TCs in CS within their existing Mathematics teacher preparation program. The statewide expansion and implementation will widen the geographic coverage to TCs at our partner institutions and broaden the recruitment to all focus areas of Secondary Education (e.g., Science, Mathematics, Career Tech, and even Social Studies and other teaching fields in secondary teacher preparation). The specific goals of the project include: (1) recruiting and enrolling up to 90 secondary TCs to begin the CS preparation pathway in pursuit of a CS endorsement added to their secondary teaching discipline; (2) producing 72 CS credentialed secondary TCs, of which 27 will receive a course-specific certification for AP Computer Science Principles (CSP); (3) producing 45 full CS subject endorsed secondary teachers; (4) leveraging an RPP model that builds beyond a prior effort, this project will provide preparation opportunities that will enable TCs to be ready to teach CS upon graduation, including Praxis preparation to become fully credentialed in CS; and (5) expanding and enacting the UA campus CS curriculum for all disciplines of secondary TCs across six higher-education partner institutions, providing an opportunity for openly sharing all developed resources and assisting the partner institutions in bootstrapping their own CS education efforts.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.