Computer Science in Mathematics Preservice Teacher Education

In recent years, significant resources have been invested in increasing access and opportunities to computer science (CS) for elementary school students in the US. However even with the increased advancements and initiatives to embed CS into the elementary school curriculum, little has been done to examine the curriculum and pedagogical implications for mathematics preservice teacher education. For these initiatives to be successful, there is a need to train preservice teachers to integrate CS concepts into their teaching. This chapter reports on a research project that investigated the use of a visual programming language on pre-service teachers' understanding of basic computer science ideas and how these can be integrated into the teaching of mathematics. The purpose of the project was to help preservice teachers develop a basic knowledge of computer science concepts and to help develop subject-specific understanding of how to integrate these concepts.