Fostering Future Teachers' Competence in Computational Thinking in an Educational Technology Course

Author(s):  
Kan Kan Chan

Computational thinking is considered a necessary skill in the 21st century. However, few teacher-education programs offer training for pre-service teachers to learn how to integrate computational thinking into the classroom. Pre-service teachers need to gain the knowledge and experience of computational thinking so that they are confident about designing relevant instructions in the future. The purpose of this chapter is to show how a free elective course in the teacher education program provides learning opportunities for them to develop their computational thinking skills and knowledge through the use of tangible objects. Samples of their works were analysed at different stages of learning to illustrate the technological pedagogical content knowledge of computational thinking. Overall, the study demonstrates that pre-service teachers were able to develop knowledge and attitudes towards computational thinking with their experience in the teacher education course.

Author(s):  
Drew Polly ◽  
Ian C. Binns ◽  
S. Michael Putman ◽  
Tracy Rock ◽  
Amy J. Good

The digital age requires teacher education programs to constantly evaluate and revise their programs and courses, particularly with reference to guiding teacher candidates towards integrating current and emerging technologies. This designed-based research study demonstrates how state-wide mandates to revise teacher education programs were used in promoting subsequent revisions influencing the course components and teacher candidates' development of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). Cases of four undergraduate elementary education courses and the advanced licensure elementary education program are described. The cross case analysis reveals the subsequent influence on the program for improving the TPACK preparation of the teacher candidates. The chapter concludes with implications for teacher educators and leaders of teacher education programs.


Author(s):  
Drew Polly ◽  
Ian C. Binns ◽  
S. Michael Putman ◽  
Tracy C. Rock ◽  
Amy J. Good

The digital age requires teacher education programs to constantly evaluate and revise their programs and courses, particularly with reference to guiding teacher candidates towards integrating current and emerging technologies. This designed-based research study demonstrates how state-wide mandates to revise teacher education programs were used in promoting subsequent revisions influencing the course components and teacher candidates' development of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). Cases of four undergraduate elementary education courses and the advanced licensure elementary education program are described. The cross case analysis reveals the subsequent influence on the program for improving the TPACK preparation of the teacher candidates. The chapter concludes with implications for teacher educators and leaders of teacher education programs.


2016 ◽  
pp. 915-943
Author(s):  
Drew Polly ◽  
Ian C. Binns ◽  
S. Michael Putman ◽  
Tracy C. Rock ◽  
Amy J. Good

The digital age requires teacher education programs to constantly evaluate and revise their programs and courses, particularly with reference to guiding teacher candidates towards integrating current and emerging technologies. This designed-based research study demonstrates how state-wide mandates to revise teacher education programs were used in promoting subsequent revisions influencing the course components and teacher candidates' development of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). Cases of four undergraduate elementary education courses and the advanced licensure elementary education program are described. The cross case analysis reveals the subsequent influence on the program for improving the TPACK preparation of the teacher candidates. The chapter concludes with implications for teacher educators and leaders of teacher education programs.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 26-37
Author(s):  
Chin-Wen Chien

Teachers should adjust their curriculum and instructional practice to meet the needs of individual learners, because one size does not fit all (Kaplan, Rogers, &Webster, 2008; Tomlinson, 2003). This study focuses on the implementation of differentiated instruction in products, “tiered assignments,” in a Children’s English class in a teacher education program in Taiwan. The study concludes that 52 college students held a positive attitude toward these tiered assignments and that they learned theories and instructional strategies not only from lectures and tasks in the university classes but also from completing different choices. Another important finding is that participants’ choice of completing these assignments is based on the level of easy of the assignments. Two suggestions are made to effectively implement differentiated instruction in products in teacher education programs in terms of explicitly modeling and explaining differentiated instruction in products and designing tiered assignments based on the levels of challenge as well as learners’ readiness, interests and profiles.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Anne Block ◽  
Paul Betts

Teacher candidates’ individual and collaborative inquiry occurs within multiple and layered contexts of learning. The layered contexts support a strong connection between the practicum and the university and the emergent teaching identities. Our understanding of teacher identity is as situated and socially constructed, yet fluid and agentic. This paper explores how agentic teaching identities emerge within the layered contexts of our teacher education program as examined in five narratives of teacher candidates’ experience. These narratives involve tension, inquiry, successes and risks, as teacher candidates negotiate what is means to learn how to teach, to teach and to critically reflect on knowledge needed to teach. We conclude that navigating teacher identity is a teacher candidate capacity that could be explicitly cultivated by teacher education programs.


2016 ◽  
pp. 1424-1437
Author(s):  
Nwachukwu Prince Ololube ◽  
Nanighe Baldwin Major ◽  
Peter James Kpolovie

In this chapter we highlighted the impact of the current economic and political dispensation in Nigeria and its impact on teacher education programs and the means of enhancing teacher education in the Niger Delta region. This paper is a conceptual and methodological breakthrough in Nigeria's academic landscape where qualitative and quantitative experiences highlight issues that are pertinent to teacher education program in the Niger Delta. The chapter proposed that the Niger Delta region's and the entire Nigeria's teacher education programs would be advanced if the component parts of the current economic and political disposition are resolved. This chapter contends that the Niger Delta region has the potential to address the challenges currently faced in the region such as social disruption (violence threat), poverty, hunger, disease, conflict, marginalization, and the achievement and improvement for effective teacher education programs. This chapter is of the immense judgment that successfully addressing the challenges currently faced in the Niger Delta region, teacher education programs will greatly improve qualitatively and quantitatively.


2016 ◽  
pp. 109-125
Author(s):  
George Zhou ◽  
Judy Xu

Today's teachers are expected to use digital technologies in their teaching. However, teacher education programs do not yet effectively develop teachers' capabilities to teach with technology. In order to search for best approaches, this chapter starts with an epistemological discussion on knowledge, and then moves to a more specific discussion about the nature of preservice teachers' learning about using technology to teach. Using the framework of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, the chapter argues that methods courses of a teacher education program are the key space where preservice teachers can be trained to use technology in subject teaching. Particularly, the Microteaching Lesson Study approach in methods courses was considered an effective way for the development of technology proficiency. A small recent supports the arguments and articulates the success and challenges of the Microteaching Lesson Study approach.


2011 ◽  
pp. 2272-2287
Author(s):  
Hilary Wilder

This case study explores the use of online distance learning technology to bring an international component to a teacher education program. By converting a course in the program into a fully online offering, the author was able include students from Namibian teacher education programs in the class along with her own students from New Jersey. The objective was to give all students a chance to interact with peers that they would not otherwise have the chance to meet, and to explore differences and commonalities in their respective education systems. This case study describes the pitfalls and successes in meeting that objective.


Author(s):  
Kimberly C. Huett ◽  
Adriana D'Alba ◽  
Bruce Neubauer

The importance of applying computational thinking—the problem-solving approach used in the domain of computer science—to solve significant problems is increasingly recognized in K-12 schools as a fundamental skill all students need to develop. The current study presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a graduate course 20 teachers and school librarians completed in spring 2019. The purpose of the course was to expand learners' understandings of the value and nature of computational thinking, to explore barriers to access faced by students in underrepresented groups, and to reflect on how to facilitate K-12 students' understandings of computational thinking outside of dedicated computing courses. Using a model for systematic instructional planning and evaluation, this chapter reports qualitative thematic analyses of learners' performances and reflections. The chapter concludes with planned revisions for the course and implications for similar efforts within in-service teacher education programs.


2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina M. Doepker

AbstractThere has been considerable attention to multicultural education and how to effectively integrate it into teacher education programs so that it helps teachers to be attentive to and effective for the economically, culturally, and racially diverse student populace. This article will focus on my personal journey with multicultural teacher education and literacy education. There will be a discussion of multicultural or diverse-oriented teacher education with a focus on the challenges as well as the potentials that face these teacher preparation programs. In addition, there will be a discussion of current educational trends in schools as evidence that demands the need for stronger multicultural teacher education programs. Finally, an existing teacher education program will be presented that has an emphasis on multicultural teacher training, as well as suggest approaches for building a research-based multicultural teacher education program.


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