Infusing Computational Thinking Into Everyday Elementary Curriculum - Finding the Unicorn

Purpose & objective

Many recent reports, media stories and research findings describe the current state of computational thinking (CT) in our nation’s schools. Project Tomorrow’s recent white paper on the integration of coding activities within curriculum in K-8 classrooms echoed similar themes and identified many of the same issues as described in these other sources. Whereas we can point to individual teachers and even schools that have infused CT within their curriculum and academic culture, those instances are not the norm. The perplexing challenge is how to systemically and effectively help teachers develop both a readiness and a capacity for the integration of CT within their daily instruction across all core curricular areas. This problem has two arms. First, understanding how teachers adopt new instructional practices and then integrate those new practices seamlessly into their classroom activities and maintain those practices as a regular “habit” requires us to rethink conventional wisdom on professional learning (PL) and teacher support. Second, institutionalizing that process into a model that is sustainable, replicable and scalable demands that as we also rethink critical success factors for instructional models. We are currently in year 3 of a multi-year professional learning and research study with teachers and leaders at 10 New York City elementary schools on how to address both challenges. In this session, we will leverage what we have learned from our NYC project to help educators understand a new approach for infusing computational thinking concepts within their everyday curriculum on a regular basis. The session will address three key questions that educators need to be answered to move ahead with CT integration plans and efforts: 1. Why is the integration of CT within elementary education so important today? 2. What is the best approach for helping teachers develop capacity around CT integration and why is this process different than with other new pedagogies? 3. How can teachers and students actualize their new CT proficiencies using digital tools?
The early results from our project in NYC are very promising. Our project teachers increased their confidence and competency with CT integration in their classroom. Per a Project Tomorrow assessment developed for this project, 52% of our project teachers for example reported that they integrated CT concepts within an existing lesson or unit as a result of our coaching and tools; only 18% had done that previously. 43% said they were now providing their students with regular opportunities to use coding as the means for demonstrating knowledge or proficiency; only 24% had been doing that previously. We believe that results such as these demonstrate the efficacy of our model and will be meaningful for our audience regardless of the level of their familiarity and practice in CT integration. Resources and tools discussed in our session will be available to participants in a dedicated site for this session on https://www.tomorrow.org.

Outline

Introductions and getting to know everyone - audience poll on CT experiences to date in the classroom (5 min)

Why CT in the elementary classroom? Review of the underpinnings for the Robin Hood Learning & Technology Fund investments in helping teachers develop new competencies in CT integration. (15 min)

What is the best approach for teacher PL on CT? Introduction to the NYC project and the Project Tomorrow model for teacher professional learning on CT integration. Review of the value of understanding teacher readiness for CT learning and how to assess student competencies in CT as well. (15 min)

How can teachers and students actualize their knowledge using digital tools? Discuss role of BrainPOP creative tools that support the integration of CT concepts in standard ELA, math, science or social studies lessons. Demonstration of sample work from our NYC project by K-5 students. (15 min)

Audience discussion (8 min)

Wrap up with how educators can access many of the resources discussed today at the dedicated site for this session on https://www.tomorrow.org (2 min)

Supporting research

https://robinhoodorg-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2018/08/Computational_Thinking_Concept_Paper_2018.pdf

Project Tomorrow Report: Coding in K-8 Classrooms: Empowering A New Generation of Creators https://tomorrow.org/speakup/coding-report-2019.html

Shuchi Grover: The 5th ‘C’ of 21st Century Skills? Try Computational Thinking (Not Coding)

Katherine Hayden: Computational Thinking through Non-Programming Science Activities https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3159450.3159520

Kiki Prottsman: Computational Thinking Meets Student Learning - Extending the ISTE Standards

Julie Randles: Teach coding and computational thinking to elementary students
https://www.iste.org/explore/teach-coding-and-computational-thinking-elementary-students