Pedagogy 2025

Abstract

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One university’s Institute for STEM Education and Research utilized a novel two-year approach to enable teachers to master and apply their skills in developing computational thinking in early grade students. In year one of the project, teachers attended a one-week summer institute taught by university faculty members from the College of Education and School of Art and Design. During this week-long institute participating teachers engaged in hands-on learning using technological tools and various manipulatives to help students develop computational thinking skills. Teachers were then encouraged to integrate these teaching approaches into their own classrooms and to periodically meet with their institute instructors to debrief their classroom experiences and to problem-solve with their peers about the challenges they encountered. The following summer, a subset of these teachers was selected to participate in a two-day refresher course followed by a three-day camp for PK-2nd grade students taught by the participating teachers during which they were observed and sometimes assisted by the institute instructors as they conducted activities with young children. At the end of each day teachers participated in a daily debrief session where they received feedback and mentoring from their instructors. This session will share the underlying educational approaches utilized in this two-year professional development experience and the evaluation data collected from the participating teachers and institute instructors. The presentation will also feature a brief video that was produced about the experience and will show children engaging in the activities designed to promote their conceptual and computational thinking.