Project Sustainability through Teacher Autonomy in CT Infusion
Citation
Joshi, Deepti; Jocius, Robin; Blanton, Melanie; Albert, Jennifer; O’Byrne, Ian. (2022) Project sustainability through teacher autonomy in CT infusion. In Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 2023, Toronto, ON), p. 1387. https://doi.org/10.1145/3545947.3576332
Abstract
There is growing attention for developing professional learning experiences for content area teachers to infuse computational thinking (CT). However, there is little reporting on how teachers continue to implement CT lessons once professional development (PD) is over. This study provides initial results on our efforts of building project sustainability through teacher autonomy in designing their own CT infusion projects or PDs for their schools. Our initial analysis indicates the need to continue to build teacher autonomy within the professional learning experiences for developing teacher confidence and sustainability of the project.
Notes
This was a poster paper — a focused, single-page snapshot from the final year of the CT infusion project. The mini-grant program we describe here was built on a simple premise: if you want teachers to sustain CT practices after PD ends, give them ownership of a project. Not a deliverable someone else defined. An actual project they proposed, got funded for, and carried out in their own school.
The findings are preliminary but point in a consistent direction: teachers felt more confident and more likely to continue when they had that ownership. The gradual release of responsibility model (GRR) is the right frame — not just for student learning, but for teacher professional development as well. True ownership, where learners determine new applications and extensions, is what we were aiming for in the final phase.