Building Professional Identity as Computer Science Teachers: Supporting Secondary Computer Science Teachers through Reflection and Community Building

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Abstract

Currently, we are facing big challenges of preparing and supporting K-12 CS teachers. In addition to increasing the number of CS teachers, there is a great need of supporting those teachers to grow and retain as committed, quality teachers. This thesis work focuses on exploring ways of supporting CS teachers through understanding their teacher identity and exploring ways of supporting identity development through a professional development program for CS teachers.

Blog Links

Session Notes

Presenter: Lijun Ni, Georgia Institute of Technology

Interested in this topic because:

  • few schools offer CS in K-12
  • lack of CS teachers
  • lack of CS teacher certification standards
  • lack of professional development

Some efforts are being done to prepare CS teachers but are any efforts being done to support CS teachers that are already hired to help them improve and grow.

Challenges

  • teacher retention - 46% teachers leave profession within 5 years, math & science turnover is even highter
  • teachers' resistance to change

How to support teachers is different question than how to prepare teachers. Her focus is how to support.

Teacher identity is used as lens. Teacher identity influences the way they teach and how they develop as teachers and also their attitudes and motivation.

Research Questions

  • What kind of professional identities do secondary CS teachers bring into practice?
  • What influences teacher sense of identity?

Difficult for CS teachers to develop sense of identity as CS teacher because:

  • CS is evolving
  • certifications are inconsistent
  • hierachy of school - which dept is CS offered under varies
  • teachers feel isolated because so few of them

Her work focuses on these issues:

  • communication
  • shallow views
  • beliefs

Identity development DCCE Disciplinary Commons for Computing Educators holds monthly workshops teachers can attend. How does participation in this affect identity?

Contributions

  • new theoretical lens
  • rich description of how teachers see themselves
  • what influences CS teachers' identity
  • emprical evidence for changes in CS teachers' sense of identity

Notes taken by Keita Del Valle, GHC 2010 Live Notetaker.

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