Garth Flint hits it out of the part with It is not about coding
Key issue?
"Although both camps were for teachers neither dealt with any pedagogy on how to teach coding or programming. Both stressed syntax and how to read the curriculum they had designed. It was implied in both camps that although pedagogy was important it was something that would somehow be easier that coding and syntax."
This may be the biggest problem with professional development for computer science teachers - we are taught what to teach but not enough of how to do the teaching.
I agree that pedagogy is critically important, but often left out. The assumption of most PD is that teachers already know how to teach, but teaching CS is different than teaching any other subject! However, when people have a choice of sessions to attend, the new tool or environment will be packed and the pedagogy offerings will have few attendees.
ReplyDeleteI encourage CS teachers to check out POGIL, Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning, it works beautifully in the CS classroom.