Preparing teachers in developing for computational thinking teaching in primary education : a Namibian case study

Abstract

In recent years, many countries in the developed world, have introduced computational thinking (CT) teaching in compulsory education, with few developing nations following. The introduction to teaching CT brought many challenges for teachers because these computing skills were not part of their initial teacher training and were less understood. Several professional development programmes have been developed to train teachers on the new CT content, but few studies have investigated the preparation of primary school teachers to teach CT and the impact of this training on the teachers’ understanding of CT concepts and self-efficacy in a developing country context. The main objective of this study was to develop a Professional Development for Primary School Teachers for the CT (PD4PCT) framework that can be used by training providers and researchers to integrate CT into teachers’ professional development programmes.

Constructionism was a pedagogical framework for this interpretive study and the conceptual frameworks of Desimone and three existing professional development CT frameworks (3C, CTTD and ADAPPTER). Different data collection methods were used for a single interpretive case study to investigate the impact of a professional development programme on primary school teachers (n = 14), their CT knowledge, beliefs and attitudes and self-efficacy of CT using a participatory design approach. Data was collected through a literature review, pre- and postquestionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and self-reporting journals. Expert reviewers validated the framework through an online questionnaire.

The study’s findings indicated that teachers who participated in the professional development programme have considerably increased their CT knowledge, their beliefs and attitudes towards CT altered for the better, and they had a substantial rise in confidence to teach CT. Overall, the results indicate that most teachers can design lesson plans and activities incorporating algorithms, decomposition, and pattern recognition concepts but abstraction and debugging to a lesser extent. Subject matter knowledge of teachers influences the integration plans for certain CT topics. To address the challenges teachers face in integrating CT into classrooms, the framework assists in identifying the components that must be considered to develop iii an effective professional development programme for teachers. The context of the school plays a vital role and should be considered as a first step in designing a teacher's professional development intervention. School leadership should support teachers with a collaborative environment where teachers can share CT knowledge and teaching strategies with others.