Lijun Ni - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Lijun Ni

Effective professional learning communities (PLCs) are important in supporting teacher learning. ... more Effective professional learning communities (PLCs) are important in supporting teacher learning. This study investigated computer science (CS) teacher leaders' perspectives on the lessons and the challenges in supporting CS teachers through local PLCs. We purposefully selected ten CSTA chapters and conducted focus group interviews with the chapter leaders between 2020 and 2022. Our findings indicated that these PLCs offered social-emotional support, continual networking opportunities, and rich professional learning resources. Also, they amplified teachers' voices and supported CS teachers' professional identity building. To engage CS teachers, the teacher leaders built trust, collaborated with other PLCs or organizations, and set an inclusive PLC culture. These PLCs had challenges in recruitment, leadership development and transition and building group identity.

This paper describes the design and evaluation of a one-week App Inventor summer camp for middle ... more This paper describes the design and evaluation of a one-week App Inventor summer camp for middle school students with an explicit focus on addressing local community needs. The community focus of the camp was designed to appeal to a broad range of students. We conducted an in-depth interview study to examine its impact on students' attitudes and perceptions, and supplemented this with results from project evaluation. Our results indicate that students had positive experiences in learning and creating real apps for solving community problems. Focusing on local community needs can also help to motivate students' interest in creating apps and in learning more about computer science. Students became more confident in creating apps as well as in using apps to solve community problems, and the camp was successful in welcoming a diverse set of students into computing.

These data were collected in 2012 for the "Georgia Computes!" project, an NSF "Bro... more These data were collected in 2012 for the "Georgia Computes!" project, an NSF "Broadening Participation in Computing" alliance focused on increasing the number and diversity of computing students in the state of Georgia. The computer camps where these data were collected are discussed in the 2012 paper, "Effective and Sustainable Computing Summer Camps," written by Barbara Ericson and Tom McKlin, and published in SIGSCE '12, Proceedings of the 34rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, pages 289-294, doi:10.1145/2157136.2157223.

Computer Science Education, Mar 29, 2023

Motivation: Recent efforts to expand K-12 computer science education highlight the great need for... more Motivation: Recent efforts to expand K-12 computer science education highlight the great need for well-prepared computer science (CS) teachers. Teacher identity theory offers a particular conceptual lens for us to understand computer science teacher preparation and professional development. The emerging literature suggests that teacher identity is central to sustaining motivation, efficacy, job satisfaction, and commitment, and these attributes are crucial in determining teacher retention. While the benefits associated with a strong sense of teacher identity are great, teachers face unique challenges and tensions in developing their professional identity for teaching computer science. Objectives: This exploratory study attempts to operationalize computer science teacher identity through discussing the potential domains, proposing and testing a quantitative instrument for assessing computer science teachers’ professional identity. Method: We first discussed the potential domains of computer science teacher identity based on recent teacher identity literature and considerations on some unique challenges for computer science teachers. Then we proposed the computer science teacher identity scale, which was piloted through a national K-12 computer science teacher survey with 3,540 completed responses. The survey results were analyzed with a series of factor analyses to test the internal structure of the computer science teacher identity scale. Results: Our analyses reveal a four-factor solution for the computer science teacher identity scale, which is composed of CS teaching commitment, CS pedagogical confidence, confidence to engage students, and sense of community/belonging. There were significant differences among the teachers with different computer science teaching experiences. In general, teachers with more computer science teaching experience had higher computer science teacher identity scores on all four factors. Discussion: The four-factor model along with a large national dataset invites a deeper analysis of the data and can provide important benchmarks. Such an instrument can be used to explore developmental patterns in computer science teacher identity, and function as a pedagogical tool to provoke discussion and reflection among teachers about their professional development. This study may also contribute to understanding computer science teachers’ professional development needs and inform efforts to prepare, develop, and retain computer science teachers.

This study explores factors that influence teachers' adoption of curriculum innovations in the co... more This study explores factors that influence teachers' adoption of curriculum innovations in the context of one specific innovation-Contextualized Computing Curricula. From a teacher-oriented perspective, we propose a theoretical model to represent hypotheses regarding potential adoption factors with an emphasis on the knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes that teachers hold about curriculum, students and themselves. We conducted a pilot study to examine those proposed factors through three summer workshops in 2007. We use the results of the pilot study to extend and refine the proposed model. Our findings indicate that teacher excitement in the new course drives adoption, while systemic issues inhibit adoption. This model might potentially provide a basis for researchers to devise effective strategies for removing barriers that prevent teachers' adoption, and thereby foster the dissemination of innovations emerging from the learning sciences community.

Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 2016

This paper describes the design and evaluation of a one-week App Inventor summer camp for middle ... more This paper describes the design and evaluation of a one-week App Inventor summer camp for middle school students with an explicit focus on addressing local community needs. The community focus of the camp was designed to appeal to a broad range of students. We conducted an in-depth interview study to examine its impact on students' attitudes and perceptions, and supplemented this with results from project evaluation. Our results indicate that students had positive experiences in learning and creating real apps for solving community problems. Focusing on local community needs can also help to motivate students' interest in creating apps and in learning more about computer science. Students became more confident in creating apps as well as in using apps to solve community problems, and the camp was successful in welcoming a diverse set of students into computing.

Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1

This study examined student learning outcomes from a culturally responsive middle school computer... more This study examined student learning outcomes from a culturally responsive middle school computer science (CS) curriculum. The curriculum is based on students creating mobile apps serving community and social good. Two sets of data were collected from 294 students in three urban districts: (1) pre-and post-survey responses on their attitudes toward learning CS and creating culturally responsive apps; (2) the apps created by those students. The analyses of student apps indicated that students were able to create basic apps that connected with their personal interests, life experiences, class community, and the larger society. Paired sample t-tests of pre-and post-survey results indicated that students were significantly more confident in coding and creating communityfocused apps after completing the course, regardless of gender and race. However, their interest in solving coding problems and continuing to learn CS decreased afterward. Analyses of students' attitudes by gender, grade, and race showed significant differences among some of those groups. Seventh grade students rated more positively on their attitudes than eighth graders. Students of different racial groups indicated significantly different attitudes, especially the Southeast Asian and African American groups. Male students also reported stronger confidence and interest and more positive attitudes overall than female students.

Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2, 2022

The recent pandemic has resulted in challenges to the prioritization of CS curriculum and straine... more The recent pandemic has resulted in challenges to the prioritization of CS curriculum and strained the structures that support and grow the professional development and identity building of the teachers who implement it. In this poster we examine how local chapters of a national CS teacher advocacy organization (the CSTA) support their members during a time of transition and change. Using focus group data collected from an ongoing multi-year longitudinal research project, we tried to better understand the challenges that these entities faced as their normal structures of communication and outreach were closed off, and how such challenges might affect the perceptions of the role that local chapters play in supporting the continued development of their members, including their identity as CS teachers.

Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 2021

This paper reports a study of CSTA chapter leaders' percep-tions of their chapter's roles... more This paper reports a study of CSTA chapter leaders' percep-tions of their chapter's roles in supporting computer science (CS) teachers. Intent on understanding the impact of member-ship in a professional organization on the development of teacher professional identity, our research revealed that in the chapter leaders' perceptions local CSTA chapters had an im-portant role in supporting the development of their mem-bers' professional identity as a CS teacher.

Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research, 2021

Motivation: Recent efforts to expand K-12 computer science education highlight the great need for... more Motivation: Recent efforts to expand K-12 computer science education highlight the great need for well-prepared computer science (CS) teachers. Teacher identity theory offers a particular conceptual lens for us to understand computer science teacher preparation and professional development. The emerging literature suggests that teacher identity is central to sustaining motivation, efficacy, job satisfaction, and commitment, and these attributes are crucial in determining teacher retention. While the benefits associated with a strong sense of teacher identity are great, teachers face unique challenges and tensions in developing their professional identity for teaching computer science. Objectives: This exploratory study attempts to operationalize computer science teacher identity through discussing the potential domains, proposing and testing a quantitative instrument for assessing computer science teachers’ professional identity. Method: We first discussed the potential domains of computer science teacher identity based on recent teacher identity literature and considerations on some unique challenges for computer science teachers. Then we proposed the computer science teacher identity scale, which was piloted through a national K-12 computer science teacher survey with 3,540 completed responses. The survey results were analyzed with a series of factor analyses to test the internal structure of the computer science teacher identity scale. Results: Our analyses reveal a four-factor solution for the computer science teacher identity scale, which is composed of CS teaching commitment, CS pedagogical confidence, confidence to engage students, and sense of community/belonging. There were significant differences among the teachers with different computer science teaching experiences. In general, teachers with more computer science teaching experience had higher computer science teacher identity scores on all four factors. Discussion: The four-factor model along with a large national dataset invites a deeper analysis of the data and can provide important benchmarks. Such an instrument can be used to explore developmental patterns in computer science teacher identity, and function as a pedagogical tool to provoke discussion and reflection among teachers about their professional development. This study may also contribute to understanding computer science teachers’ professional development needs and inform efforts to prepare, develop, and retain computer science teachers.

Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2, 2022

This poster shares our experience of engaging middle school teachers in a collaborative design of... more This poster shares our experience of engaging middle school teachers in a collaborative design of a computer science and digital literacy (CSDL) curriculum through a researcher and practitioner partnership (RPP) among two public universities and three urban school districts in the Northeast USA. The project used the codesign approach to facilitate curriculum development and foster professional learning. In this poster, we introduce the co-design process, the developed curriculum, and teachers' professional learning experiences. Preliminary results indicate that the codesign approach supplemented with one-one-on coaching has not only facilitated the curriculum development but also fostered professional learning and collective capacity building for CS education.

We describe a three-stage model of computing instruction beginning with a simple, highly scaffold... more We describe a three-stage model of computing instruction beginning with a simple, highly scaffolded programming en-vironment (Kodu) and progressing to more challenging frame-works (Alice and Lego NXT-G). In moving between frame-works, students explore the similarities and differences in how concepts such as variables, conditionals, and looping are realized. This can potentially lead to a deeper under-standing of programming, bringing students closer to true computational thinking. Some novel strategies for teach-ing with Kodu are outlined. Finally, we briefly report on our methodology and select preliminary results from a pi-lot study using this curriculum with students ages 10–17, including several with disabilities.

Currently, we are facing big challenges of preparing and supporting K-12 CS teachers. In addition... more 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. As suggested by teacher identity theory, teachers ’ sense of commitment and (other aspects of) teaching profession is tightly linked with their sense of identity. This study starts to explore ways of supporting CS teachers through understanding their teacher identity. We start with introducing the unique challenges of preparing and supporting CS teachers, and then describe the qualitative study aimed at understanding CS teachers’ professional identity, which has the potential to offer insights for sustaining and supporting CS teachers.

The Disciplinary Commons (DC) is a model of teacher professional development that encourages memb... more The Disciplinary Commons (DC) is a model of teacher professional development that encourages members of the group to reflect upon their teaching practices, develop a community, and, more broadly, to become more scholarly about their teaching. The DC involves a series of monthly meetings where university faculty members examine their course in detail while producing a course portfolio. Evaluation of the early DC’s suggests that they successfully created a sense of community and sharing among the participants. We have adapted the original model to a new audience, high school computing teachers. The adapted model maintains the key aspects of the original model while adding two new, important goals for this new audience: improving recruitment and creating community. The high school teacher audience particularly needed strategies for recruiting students and was in greater need of community. We present evaluation evidence suggesting that we achieved the design goals in a replicable model,...

This paper presents the findings of an exploratory, qualitative study revealing computing instruc... more This paper presents the findings of an exploratory, qualitative study revealing computing instructors ’ experience in adopting curriculum innovations. We interviewed eight instructors a year after they attended workshops on several innovative introductory Computer Science (intro CS) courses at undergraduate level. The interview was designed to elicit the extent to which instructors had adopted or adapted what they learned from the workshops, and what drove or prevented their efforts to make curriculum change. The results of this study reveal that the adoption and adaptation of computing curriculum innovations in new situations may involve systemic change affecting instructors, departments and institutions as a whole. The findings of this study suggest a list of questions that a computing instructor might ask before committing to a new innovation. We also consider implications of this study for disseminating computing education innovations.

In this paper, we share our experiences implementing a professional development program in two sc... more In this paper, we share our experiences implementing a professional development program in two school districts with middle school teachers who integrated an introductory computer science curriculum into their teaching. The 15 to 20–hour curriculum was based on students collaboratively creating mobile apps for socially relevant purposes with MIT App Inventor. Eleven teachers infused the curriculum into technology, math, engineering, library and art courses. We investigated how teachers modified the curriculum to fit their respective standards and students’ needs. We discuss the challenges they faced and propose ways of addressing these barriers. We found that the teachers were successful in combining digital literacy skills with computer science—not only to facilitate students’ learning, but also to connect with their diverse ethnic backgrounds and their contemporary passions.

This study explores factors that influence teachers’ adoption of curriculum innovations in the co... more This study explores factors that influence teachers’ adoption of curriculum innovations in the context of one specific innovation—Contextualized Computing Curricula. From a teacher-oriented perspective, we propose a theoretical model to represent hypotheses regarding potential adoption factors with an emphasis on the knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes that teachers hold about curriculum, students and themselves. We conducted a pilot study to examine those proposed factors through three summer workshops in 2007. We use the results of the pilot study to extend and refine the proposed model. Our findings indicate that teacher excitement in the new course drives adoption, while systemic issues inhibit adoption. This model might potentially provide a basis for researchers to devise effective strategies for removing barriers that prevent teachers’ adoption, and thereby foster the dissemination of innovations emerging from the learning sciences community. School of Interactive Computing Col...

Computer Science Education

Background & Context: Many efforts have been dedicated to building computer science (CS) ... more Background & Context: Many efforts have been dedicated to building computer science (CS) teacher capacity through offering professional development (PD) programs. Previous reviews indicated the need to offer more continual support for teachers. Recent research has shifted its focus to scaling up PD and sustaining teaching capacity by establishing PLCs for CS teachers. Objective: This study aims to conduct a systematic literature review of recent research on K-12 CS teacher PD, with an explicit exploration of PLCs. Method: Based on 48 selected articles of 41 programs, this study explored features that contributed to the effectiveness of PD, including (1) PD goals, (2) theoretical frameworks and PD models, (3) curriculum and pedagogy, (4) programming tools, (5) program structure and approach, and (6) PD evaluation. We also examined whether and how these programs were dedicated to establishing PLCs. Findings: Findings indicate a considerable increase in the number of studies on CS teacher PD . More programs saw the promising roles of PLCs and explored a variety of approaches for community building and promoting teacher learning. Implications: PLCs have immense potential for teacher development, including breaking teacher isolation and fostering collaboration. More research can enlighten the efforts for CS teacher preparation and development.

Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Current efforts to expand K-12 CS education highlight the great need of well-prepared CS teachers... more Current efforts to expand K-12 CS education highlight the great need of well-prepared CS teachers with a strong sense of professional identity. This study proposes the CS teacher identity scale, a quantitative instrument for measuring CS teachers' sense of professional identity. The survey was piloted through a national teacher survey and tested for its reliability, dimensionality, and validity. The analysis reveals a four-factor solution for the CS teacher identity scale.

Effective professional learning communities (PLCs) are important in supporting teacher learning. ... more Effective professional learning communities (PLCs) are important in supporting teacher learning. This study investigated computer science (CS) teacher leaders' perspectives on the lessons and the challenges in supporting CS teachers through local PLCs. We purposefully selected ten CSTA chapters and conducted focus group interviews with the chapter leaders between 2020 and 2022. Our findings indicated that these PLCs offered social-emotional support, continual networking opportunities, and rich professional learning resources. Also, they amplified teachers' voices and supported CS teachers' professional identity building. To engage CS teachers, the teacher leaders built trust, collaborated with other PLCs or organizations, and set an inclusive PLC culture. These PLCs had challenges in recruitment, leadership development and transition and building group identity.

This paper describes the design and evaluation of a one-week App Inventor summer camp for middle ... more This paper describes the design and evaluation of a one-week App Inventor summer camp for middle school students with an explicit focus on addressing local community needs. The community focus of the camp was designed to appeal to a broad range of students. We conducted an in-depth interview study to examine its impact on students' attitudes and perceptions, and supplemented this with results from project evaluation. Our results indicate that students had positive experiences in learning and creating real apps for solving community problems. Focusing on local community needs can also help to motivate students' interest in creating apps and in learning more about computer science. Students became more confident in creating apps as well as in using apps to solve community problems, and the camp was successful in welcoming a diverse set of students into computing.

These data were collected in 2012 for the "Georgia Computes!" project, an NSF "Bro... more These data were collected in 2012 for the "Georgia Computes!" project, an NSF "Broadening Participation in Computing" alliance focused on increasing the number and diversity of computing students in the state of Georgia. The computer camps where these data were collected are discussed in the 2012 paper, "Effective and Sustainable Computing Summer Camps," written by Barbara Ericson and Tom McKlin, and published in SIGSCE '12, Proceedings of the 34rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, pages 289-294, doi:10.1145/2157136.2157223.

Computer Science Education, Mar 29, 2023

Motivation: Recent efforts to expand K-12 computer science education highlight the great need for... more Motivation: Recent efforts to expand K-12 computer science education highlight the great need for well-prepared computer science (CS) teachers. Teacher identity theory offers a particular conceptual lens for us to understand computer science teacher preparation and professional development. The emerging literature suggests that teacher identity is central to sustaining motivation, efficacy, job satisfaction, and commitment, and these attributes are crucial in determining teacher retention. While the benefits associated with a strong sense of teacher identity are great, teachers face unique challenges and tensions in developing their professional identity for teaching computer science. Objectives: This exploratory study attempts to operationalize computer science teacher identity through discussing the potential domains, proposing and testing a quantitative instrument for assessing computer science teachers’ professional identity. Method: We first discussed the potential domains of computer science teacher identity based on recent teacher identity literature and considerations on some unique challenges for computer science teachers. Then we proposed the computer science teacher identity scale, which was piloted through a national K-12 computer science teacher survey with 3,540 completed responses. The survey results were analyzed with a series of factor analyses to test the internal structure of the computer science teacher identity scale. Results: Our analyses reveal a four-factor solution for the computer science teacher identity scale, which is composed of CS teaching commitment, CS pedagogical confidence, confidence to engage students, and sense of community/belonging. There were significant differences among the teachers with different computer science teaching experiences. In general, teachers with more computer science teaching experience had higher computer science teacher identity scores on all four factors. Discussion: The four-factor model along with a large national dataset invites a deeper analysis of the data and can provide important benchmarks. Such an instrument can be used to explore developmental patterns in computer science teacher identity, and function as a pedagogical tool to provoke discussion and reflection among teachers about their professional development. This study may also contribute to understanding computer science teachers’ professional development needs and inform efforts to prepare, develop, and retain computer science teachers.

This study explores factors that influence teachers' adoption of curriculum innovations in the co... more This study explores factors that influence teachers' adoption of curriculum innovations in the context of one specific innovation-Contextualized Computing Curricula. From a teacher-oriented perspective, we propose a theoretical model to represent hypotheses regarding potential adoption factors with an emphasis on the knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes that teachers hold about curriculum, students and themselves. We conducted a pilot study to examine those proposed factors through three summer workshops in 2007. We use the results of the pilot study to extend and refine the proposed model. Our findings indicate that teacher excitement in the new course drives adoption, while systemic issues inhibit adoption. This model might potentially provide a basis for researchers to devise effective strategies for removing barriers that prevent teachers' adoption, and thereby foster the dissemination of innovations emerging from the learning sciences community.

Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 2016

This paper describes the design and evaluation of a one-week App Inventor summer camp for middle ... more This paper describes the design and evaluation of a one-week App Inventor summer camp for middle school students with an explicit focus on addressing local community needs. The community focus of the camp was designed to appeal to a broad range of students. We conducted an in-depth interview study to examine its impact on students' attitudes and perceptions, and supplemented this with results from project evaluation. Our results indicate that students had positive experiences in learning and creating real apps for solving community problems. Focusing on local community needs can also help to motivate students' interest in creating apps and in learning more about computer science. Students became more confident in creating apps as well as in using apps to solve community problems, and the camp was successful in welcoming a diverse set of students into computing.

Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1

This study examined student learning outcomes from a culturally responsive middle school computer... more This study examined student learning outcomes from a culturally responsive middle school computer science (CS) curriculum. The curriculum is based on students creating mobile apps serving community and social good. Two sets of data were collected from 294 students in three urban districts: (1) pre-and post-survey responses on their attitudes toward learning CS and creating culturally responsive apps; (2) the apps created by those students. The analyses of student apps indicated that students were able to create basic apps that connected with their personal interests, life experiences, class community, and the larger society. Paired sample t-tests of pre-and post-survey results indicated that students were significantly more confident in coding and creating communityfocused apps after completing the course, regardless of gender and race. However, their interest in solving coding problems and continuing to learn CS decreased afterward. Analyses of students' attitudes by gender, grade, and race showed significant differences among some of those groups. Seventh grade students rated more positively on their attitudes than eighth graders. Students of different racial groups indicated significantly different attitudes, especially the Southeast Asian and African American groups. Male students also reported stronger confidence and interest and more positive attitudes overall than female students.

Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2, 2022

The recent pandemic has resulted in challenges to the prioritization of CS curriculum and straine... more The recent pandemic has resulted in challenges to the prioritization of CS curriculum and strained the structures that support and grow the professional development and identity building of the teachers who implement it. In this poster we examine how local chapters of a national CS teacher advocacy organization (the CSTA) support their members during a time of transition and change. Using focus group data collected from an ongoing multi-year longitudinal research project, we tried to better understand the challenges that these entities faced as their normal structures of communication and outreach were closed off, and how such challenges might affect the perceptions of the role that local chapters play in supporting the continued development of their members, including their identity as CS teachers.

Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 2021

This paper reports a study of CSTA chapter leaders' percep-tions of their chapter's roles... more This paper reports a study of CSTA chapter leaders' percep-tions of their chapter's roles in supporting computer science (CS) teachers. Intent on understanding the impact of member-ship in a professional organization on the development of teacher professional identity, our research revealed that in the chapter leaders' perceptions local CSTA chapters had an im-portant role in supporting the development of their mem-bers' professional identity as a CS teacher.

Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research, 2021

Motivation: Recent efforts to expand K-12 computer science education highlight the great need for... more Motivation: Recent efforts to expand K-12 computer science education highlight the great need for well-prepared computer science (CS) teachers. Teacher identity theory offers a particular conceptual lens for us to understand computer science teacher preparation and professional development. The emerging literature suggests that teacher identity is central to sustaining motivation, efficacy, job satisfaction, and commitment, and these attributes are crucial in determining teacher retention. While the benefits associated with a strong sense of teacher identity are great, teachers face unique challenges and tensions in developing their professional identity for teaching computer science. Objectives: This exploratory study attempts to operationalize computer science teacher identity through discussing the potential domains, proposing and testing a quantitative instrument for assessing computer science teachers’ professional identity. Method: We first discussed the potential domains of computer science teacher identity based on recent teacher identity literature and considerations on some unique challenges for computer science teachers. Then we proposed the computer science teacher identity scale, which was piloted through a national K-12 computer science teacher survey with 3,540 completed responses. The survey results were analyzed with a series of factor analyses to test the internal structure of the computer science teacher identity scale. Results: Our analyses reveal a four-factor solution for the computer science teacher identity scale, which is composed of CS teaching commitment, CS pedagogical confidence, confidence to engage students, and sense of community/belonging. There were significant differences among the teachers with different computer science teaching experiences. In general, teachers with more computer science teaching experience had higher computer science teacher identity scores on all four factors. Discussion: The four-factor model along with a large national dataset invites a deeper analysis of the data and can provide important benchmarks. Such an instrument can be used to explore developmental patterns in computer science teacher identity, and function as a pedagogical tool to provoke discussion and reflection among teachers about their professional development. This study may also contribute to understanding computer science teachers’ professional development needs and inform efforts to prepare, develop, and retain computer science teachers.

Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2, 2022

This poster shares our experience of engaging middle school teachers in a collaborative design of... more This poster shares our experience of engaging middle school teachers in a collaborative design of a computer science and digital literacy (CSDL) curriculum through a researcher and practitioner partnership (RPP) among two public universities and three urban school districts in the Northeast USA. The project used the codesign approach to facilitate curriculum development and foster professional learning. In this poster, we introduce the co-design process, the developed curriculum, and teachers' professional learning experiences. Preliminary results indicate that the codesign approach supplemented with one-one-on coaching has not only facilitated the curriculum development but also fostered professional learning and collective capacity building for CS education.

We describe a three-stage model of computing instruction beginning with a simple, highly scaffold... more We describe a three-stage model of computing instruction beginning with a simple, highly scaffolded programming en-vironment (Kodu) and progressing to more challenging frame-works (Alice and Lego NXT-G). In moving between frame-works, students explore the similarities and differences in how concepts such as variables, conditionals, and looping are realized. This can potentially lead to a deeper under-standing of programming, bringing students closer to true computational thinking. Some novel strategies for teach-ing with Kodu are outlined. Finally, we briefly report on our methodology and select preliminary results from a pi-lot study using this curriculum with students ages 10–17, including several with disabilities.

Currently, we are facing big challenges of preparing and supporting K-12 CS teachers. In addition... more 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. As suggested by teacher identity theory, teachers ’ sense of commitment and (other aspects of) teaching profession is tightly linked with their sense of identity. This study starts to explore ways of supporting CS teachers through understanding their teacher identity. We start with introducing the unique challenges of preparing and supporting CS teachers, and then describe the qualitative study aimed at understanding CS teachers’ professional identity, which has the potential to offer insights for sustaining and supporting CS teachers.

The Disciplinary Commons (DC) is a model of teacher professional development that encourages memb... more The Disciplinary Commons (DC) is a model of teacher professional development that encourages members of the group to reflect upon their teaching practices, develop a community, and, more broadly, to become more scholarly about their teaching. The DC involves a series of monthly meetings where university faculty members examine their course in detail while producing a course portfolio. Evaluation of the early DC’s suggests that they successfully created a sense of community and sharing among the participants. We have adapted the original model to a new audience, high school computing teachers. The adapted model maintains the key aspects of the original model while adding two new, important goals for this new audience: improving recruitment and creating community. The high school teacher audience particularly needed strategies for recruiting students and was in greater need of community. We present evaluation evidence suggesting that we achieved the design goals in a replicable model,...

This paper presents the findings of an exploratory, qualitative study revealing computing instruc... more This paper presents the findings of an exploratory, qualitative study revealing computing instructors ’ experience in adopting curriculum innovations. We interviewed eight instructors a year after they attended workshops on several innovative introductory Computer Science (intro CS) courses at undergraduate level. The interview was designed to elicit the extent to which instructors had adopted or adapted what they learned from the workshops, and what drove or prevented their efforts to make curriculum change. The results of this study reveal that the adoption and adaptation of computing curriculum innovations in new situations may involve systemic change affecting instructors, departments and institutions as a whole. The findings of this study suggest a list of questions that a computing instructor might ask before committing to a new innovation. We also consider implications of this study for disseminating computing education innovations.

In this paper, we share our experiences implementing a professional development program in two sc... more In this paper, we share our experiences implementing a professional development program in two school districts with middle school teachers who integrated an introductory computer science curriculum into their teaching. The 15 to 20–hour curriculum was based on students collaboratively creating mobile apps for socially relevant purposes with MIT App Inventor. Eleven teachers infused the curriculum into technology, math, engineering, library and art courses. We investigated how teachers modified the curriculum to fit their respective standards and students’ needs. We discuss the challenges they faced and propose ways of addressing these barriers. We found that the teachers were successful in combining digital literacy skills with computer science—not only to facilitate students’ learning, but also to connect with their diverse ethnic backgrounds and their contemporary passions.

This study explores factors that influence teachers’ adoption of curriculum innovations in the co... more This study explores factors that influence teachers’ adoption of curriculum innovations in the context of one specific innovation—Contextualized Computing Curricula. From a teacher-oriented perspective, we propose a theoretical model to represent hypotheses regarding potential adoption factors with an emphasis on the knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes that teachers hold about curriculum, students and themselves. We conducted a pilot study to examine those proposed factors through three summer workshops in 2007. We use the results of the pilot study to extend and refine the proposed model. Our findings indicate that teacher excitement in the new course drives adoption, while systemic issues inhibit adoption. This model might potentially provide a basis for researchers to devise effective strategies for removing barriers that prevent teachers’ adoption, and thereby foster the dissemination of innovations emerging from the learning sciences community. School of Interactive Computing Col...

Computer Science Education

Background & Context: Many efforts have been dedicated to building computer science (CS) ... more Background & Context: Many efforts have been dedicated to building computer science (CS) teacher capacity through offering professional development (PD) programs. Previous reviews indicated the need to offer more continual support for teachers. Recent research has shifted its focus to scaling up PD and sustaining teaching capacity by establishing PLCs for CS teachers. Objective: This study aims to conduct a systematic literature review of recent research on K-12 CS teacher PD, with an explicit exploration of PLCs. Method: Based on 48 selected articles of 41 programs, this study explored features that contributed to the effectiveness of PD, including (1) PD goals, (2) theoretical frameworks and PD models, (3) curriculum and pedagogy, (4) programming tools, (5) program structure and approach, and (6) PD evaluation. We also examined whether and how these programs were dedicated to establishing PLCs. Findings: Findings indicate a considerable increase in the number of studies on CS teacher PD . More programs saw the promising roles of PLCs and explored a variety of approaches for community building and promoting teacher learning. Implications: PLCs have immense potential for teacher development, including breaking teacher isolation and fostering collaboration. More research can enlighten the efforts for CS teacher preparation and development.

Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Current efforts to expand K-12 CS education highlight the great need of well-prepared CS teachers... more Current efforts to expand K-12 CS education highlight the great need of well-prepared CS teachers with a strong sense of professional identity. This study proposes the CS teacher identity scale, a quantitative instrument for measuring CS teachers' sense of professional identity. The survey was piloted through a national teacher survey and tested for its reliability, dimensionality, and validity. The analysis reveals a four-factor solution for the CS teacher identity scale.