Creating sustainable computational thinking infusion: An analysis of teacher-led practitioner inquiry projects
Citation
Jocius, Robin; Albert, Jennifer; Joshi, Deepti; Blanton, Melanie; O’Byrne, W. Ian. (2023) Creating sustainable computational thinking infusion: An analysis of teacher-led practitioner inquiry projects. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 31(4), 493–522.
Abstract
There is growing attention to the potential for developing professional learning experiences for content area teachers to infuse computational thinking (CT) into their classrooms. Although research has begun to document professional learning models and supports for CT infusion, an understudied area for both research and practice is how in-service teachers come to lead CT infusion efforts — through determining curriculum, supporting colleagues, and designing school and district-wide programs — once the professional development and related learning experiences are over. In this paper, we document findings from the final year of a five-year PD project, in which a subset of middle and high school content area teachers and teacher teams (n=12) proposed, designed, and carried out their own CT infusion projects. Using a practitioner inquiry framework, we analyze teachers’ choices in project types, motivating factors, their inquiry processes, and their perceptions of project impact. We discuss suggestions for supporting teacher-led CT infusion, including taking incremental approaches that develop teacher knowledge over time, building both discipline-specific and interdisciplinary teacher communities, and engaging multiple stakeholders to build the culture necessary for CT infusion.
Notes
This paper documents the end of a five-year journey — what happens when you stop running the PD and hand the keys to teachers. The short version is that some teachers drive, and some park. But that framing misses what actually matters: the ones who drove made things that were genuinely theirs.
The practitioner inquiry model was right for this. It didn’t ask teachers to implement someone else’s curriculum; it asked them to define a problem in their own context and pursue it. That’s a different kind of professional learning, and it produces different results. Some of the mini-grant projects were curriculum units. Some were school-wide PD programs. Some were after-school clubs. The diversity of forms was itself a finding: CT infusion looks like whatever teachers make it look like in their actual schools.
What I keep thinking about is the sustainability question. Researcher-practitioner partnerships tend to produce things that die when the grant ends. This paper tries to honestly reckon with what structures — not just enthusiasm — it takes to build something that outlasts the project.