Teaching coding and computational thinking in primary classrooms: perceptions of Australian preservice teachers
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Teaching coding and computational thinking in primary classrooms: perceptions of Australian preservice teachers Margaret Lloyd 1
&
Vinesh Chandra 1
Received: 28 February 2020 / Revised: 28 July 2020 / Accepted: 6 August 2020 # Australian Curriculum Studies Association 2020
Abstract Coding and computational thinking are becoming increasingly important in primary classrooms. In Australia, they are being progressively mandated as part of the school curriculum in each state and territory. As such, it has become imperative that preservice teachers enrolled in primary education courses have the technological and pedagogical skills to design and deliver relevant classroom activities that align with national curricula. Through a small-scale qualitative study, we investigated preservice teachers’ understanding of coding and computational thinking and their perceptions of the connections between these concepts and the Australian Curriculum. We applied summative content and thematic analyses to data collected from semistructured interviews and supplementary documents. Eight Australian preservice teachers enrolled in an undergraduate primary education degree volunteered to participate in this research. Our findings showed that the participating preservice teachers had a sound if somewhat idiosyncratic knowledge of coding and computational thinking. Their perceptions of how these concepts related to the Australian Curriculum demonstrated a trajectory of understanding that was highly likely to develop and mature as they were transferred to classroom settings. This paper concludes by acknowledging the newness of teaching coding and computational thinking and suggests that time and support are needed for preservice teachers’ current perceptions and understandings to be consolidated in future teaching practice. Keywords Coding . Computational thinking . Preservice teachers . Australian curriculum
The Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies syllabus, released in 2016, is to be explicitly taught to all students from Foundation (Kindergarten) to Year 8. Despite the acknowledged difficulty of teaching coding and computational thinking (Cabrera 2019), they have been progressively introduced with full implementation mandated in most states and territories by 2020. Gaining the relevant technological and pedagogical skills has placed new demands on teachers (Yadav et al. 2016). Bower and Falkner (2015) spoke of an ‘urgent and pressing need to [help] … teachers develop computational thinking pedagogies’ (p. 37). Further, Dredge (2014) contended, in regard to the UK computing syllabus, that, as with any major curricular change, ‘tens of thousands of primary-school
* Margaret Lloyd [email protected] 1
Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
teachers who may be new to programming themselves’ will be ‘at the sharp end’ of implementation (para. 18). Demands relating to teaching digital technologies have also presented challenges to preservice teacher education. Th
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