An Analysis of Upper Elementary and Middle Grade Teachers' Perceptions, Concerns and Goals for Integrating CS into Classrooms

As efforts to integrate computer science into K-8 teaching in the US are dramatically rising, professional development workshops for teachers are becoming widespread. An open challenge for the CS education research community is to understand teachers' needs and develop empirically grounded best practices for professional development. This poster displays our findings from a five-day professional development workshop in which 22 third through eighth grade teachers from various subjects learned about fundamental CS concepts, practiced coding, and created lesson plans for integrating what they learned into their classroom. We present quantitative and qualitative outcomes, with emphasis on teachers' perception of CS and how to integrate CS into their classrooms. The quantitative results, based on pre- and post-tests, reveal that the teachers gained significant technical knowledge and improved their attitudes toward CS. The qualitative results, based on the focus groups conducted before and after the workshop, indicated that teachers' limited exposure to CS can lead to misconceptions and some negative attitudes. Moreover, limitations such as time constraints and lack of understanding of CS are barriers to integrating CS into classrooms. On the other hand, the workshop provided teachers a clearer sense of the potential of CS to enhance their classroom plans. Teachers noted that they felt able to use CS to help students learn critical thinking, prepare them for their futures, and address their individual needs. These results can inform future workshops that address the needs of teachers and students.