Pedagogical content knowledge of computer science teachers
Leading team
Project members
Summary
Teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is an important factor in all that concerns teaching and learning processes. As such, it plays an important role in pre-service teachers’ training and in-service teachers’ professional development. In line with this, the pedagogical content knowledge of computer science (CS) teachers receives considerable attention in current computing education research. However, very little is known about effective ways of extracting valid and reliable CS-PCK segments from the practical work of CS in-service teachers, and hence, only a limited reservoir of such segments is available for CS educators. This project deals with a new strategy for extracting research-based CS-PCK segments from the practical work of experienced high-school teachers. This strategy incorporates action research, conducted by the CS teachers in their classrooms, as part of a long and extensive workshop for professional development of CS teachers with a rich social context. The research examines the effectiveness and feasibility of this strategy, as well as its implications on teachers’ practice.
Links for further reading
- Brandes, O., & Armoni, M. (2019). Using action research to distill research-based segments of pedagogical content knowledge of K-12 computer science teachers. In Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE’19), Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, 485-491.
- Brandes, O., & Armoni, M. (2019). The effects of a professional development workshop focusing on action research on the practice of high-school computer science teachers. In Proceedings of the 14th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education (WiPSCE’19), Glasgow, Scotland, UK, 13:1-10.
- Brandes, O., & Armoni, M. (2020). Towards a holistic reservoir of research-based PCK segments of K-12 computer science teachers. In Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE’20), Trondheim, Norway (virtual conference), 131-137.