Rethinking Integrated Computer Science Instruction: A Cross-context and Expansive Approach in Elementary Classrooms
In this episode I unpack Shehzad et al.’s (2023) publication titled “Rethinking integrated computer science instruction: A cross-context and expansive approach in elementary classrooms,” which compared perceptions of teaching and learning the intersections of computer science and geometry in integrated and cross-context approaches.
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Computer science Educators around the
country are integrating computer science
in many different ways but which one
works better and for what context
today's paper is titled rethinking
integrated computer science instruction
colon across context and expansive
approach in Elementary classrooms this
paper is written by Umar shazed Jody e
Clark Madura Kimberly Beck Jessica
Shumway and Mimi m wrecker apologies if
I mispronounced any names here's the
abstract for this paper quote the study
examines how a rural serving School
District aimed to provide Elementary
computer science CS by offering
instruction during students's computer
lab a class taught by paraprofessional
Educators with limited background in
Computing as part of a research practice
partnership cross-context mathematics
and CS lessons were co-designed to
expansively frame and highlight
connections across as opposed to
integrated within the two subjects
findings indicate that the
paraprofessionals teaching the lessons
generally reported positive experiences
and understanding of content however
those less comfortable with the content
reported lower student interest further
most students who in engage with the
lessons across the lab and classroom
context reported finding the lessons
interesting seeing connections to their
mathematics classes and understanding
the programming in contrast students who
only learned about mathematics
connections with the Cs classes thus not
in a cross-context way reported
significantly lower levels of Interest
connections and understanding end quote
try to summarize this paper into a
single sentence I'd say that this study
compared perceptions of teaching and
learning the intersections of computer
science and geometry in integrated and
cross-context approaches and as always
you can find a link to this paper in the
show notes at Jared o'leary.com or by
clicking the link in the app that you
are listening to this on now we've done
quite a few different episodes on
integrating computer science whether
it's in a specific subject area like
music or just broadly speaking out about
the different types of integration that
you can do with computer science and
other subject areas but we haven't
really had many empirical studies that
actually do a comparative analysis
between one approach versus another
approach I think this is extremely
important for the field to explore as it
will allow us to kind of consider which
approaches might work better for
different contexts or different goals
Visions rationales etc for computer
science education so this paper Begins
by talking about how there are some
barriers that are often reported for
getting computer science into classes
that might be there's just not enough
curricular time for it it might be that
the Educators don't have expertise in
computer science or it might be that
there's like a lack of one-to-one
devices so to address these problems the
researchers collaborated with a rural
district and they came up with a study
that would kind of compare two different
approaches for integrating which would
address like the curricular time issues
should we integrate into a single class
where they are learning both Computer
Science and Mathematics at the same time
or should we do this in a way that where
they are learning Computer Science and
Mathematics in parallel while making
connections across the different subject
areas in the two different classes and
this study was Guided by the research
questions quote what were
paraprofessionals is perceptions of
their implementations what were students
perceptions of the lessons in the cross
context class term implementation did
students Perceptions in the cross
context group differ from the peers in
the Cs only group in quotes from page
two so in the first subsection after the
introduction it talks about the
theoretical framework which is called
expansive framing there's a quote from
page two quote expansive framing posits
a broadly framing curricula across
context EG times places groups of people
roles and topics can foster expectations
that content learned in one setting will
be useful in other settings the theory
advocates for the importance of
interleaving contextual features to
promote transfer between the context
additionally framing expansively
promotes student creation of and
authorship in their own learning this
authorship requires students to draw
upon their relevant prior knowledge
holds them accountable for their own
learning and portrays Learners as
independent knowledge generators in
response to new problems end quote this
is from page 2 of the PDF so this idea
relates to a lot of the prior
discussions on the siloing nature that
tends to happen in schools so schools
tend to Silo off things into we're only
going to talk about mathematics in a
mathematics class and we're only going
to talk about science in a science class
but we don't talk about how the two can
kind of collaborate or work together to
solve different kinds of problems or
explore different topics so an expansive
framing in those two particular areas
might look at science from a mathematics
perspective and then look at mathematics
from a science perspective so the two
going on in parallel to trying to figure
out how they can kind of work together
however in this particular study they
were looking at the intersections of
geometry and computer science so how the
two kind of could work together to
better understand different concepts and
practices from both domains so in the
next subsection which is called cross
context expansively framed CS
mathematics lessons the authors kind of
talk about well what did this actually
look like so they had a design team that
came up with the different content that
was being used so this design team
consisted of a couple of classroom
teachers three paraprofessionals some
District administrators two of them as
well as some of the researchers who were
working on this project and they all
kind of came up with different ways to
address some of the different needs for
this specific District which is a
fantastic way for researchers and
practitioners to kind of collaborate
together to come up with solutions that
are research based and kind of explore
what Solutions work best for different
contexts so for example the authors
mentioned that the district had a lack
of curricular time to be able to devote
to computer science so they talked about
how they could potentially Implement and
integrate computer science lessons
content Etc into their technology
classes for the computer lab time that
was run by paraprofessionals which
having worked with many districts across
the country this is something that I've
seen done in multiple different places
now to address some of the lack of
devices they worked on some unplugged
experiences or activities in addition to
the computer lab time so when they're in
their geometry classes then the students
might do some unplugged lessons that
would allow them to explore different
concepts and practices Etc the teachers
and the paraprofessionals kind of work
together to come up with some topics and
whatnot and then the researchers created
some instructional materials that were
then used in the classroom now because
the paraprofessionals did not have a lot
of Cs experience and background the
researchers created some resources that
were kind of similar to what they were
using in the class so the
paraprofessionals used some scratch
cards which are cards that kind of like
show you step by step how to create
something in scratch like usually a very
simple project or a very simple action
or task or whatever so they kind of like
created their own versions of these that
were late related to geometry and
computer science which I think that's a
great idea for the researchers to create
resources that are useful and are known
to the practitioners that they are
working with now even though they
developed a couple of units this
particular study just talks about the
geometry unit that was explored so the
next section is on the methods so if
you're interested in seeing like the
number of teachers paraprofessionals Etc
who responded to this checkout figure
too but in terms of like the actual
lessons that were taught there were two
lessons one on quadrilaterals and the
other on triangles and students would
complete a three question little exit
ticket survey to kind of share their
perceptions on the lesson that was
taught so it asks about whether or not
they found the lesson interesting
whether or not they were able to connect
what they learned with math class and
and whether or not they understood what
they worked on today all right so let's
take a look at the findings so research
question one is on the paraprofessionals
perceptions only one of the
paraprofessionals had any background
with coding the rest were pretty new to
their teaching roles and to computer
science however the majority of them
reported positive experiences teaching
lessons and understanding the content
but three of the paraprofessionals which
is about 21 did not think that their
lessons went well and two out of those
three mentioned that they didn't really
understand the mathematics Concepts that
were being taught however the majority
of them said that they believe that
their students had a positive experience
with the lesson and that they were able
to make mathematics connections again
this is the paraprofessionals or
perceptions on this however five of the
paraprofessionals which is 35 said that
they did not think that the students
actually showed interest in the lesson
which is interesting I'm curious as to
why was it too simple or they just don't
like math like the subject area they
rather make games or stories or whatever
now the authors do point out that three
out of those five were the same three
who mentioned that the were not
necessarily comfortable with the
mathematics content so it may have been
they didn't know how to teach it very
well yeah so the findings kind of
suggests that hey it's really important
for people who are teaching content area
to have some subject area expertise in
that which I totally agree with I've
talked about this with many interviews
with different guests that like yeah
it's okay to start Computer Science
Education without knowing much about
computer science however you're going to
need to learn it in the long run because
you're going to be able to figure out
how to guide students along a long path
for example in episode 66 which is
titled the role of deliberate practice
in the acquisition of expert performance
I talk about how some K-12 Educators
need to think about how to develop
expertise over several years so example
like I taught high school and in high
school I started working with those
students in middle school so we do like
free clinics and things like that and so
I Was preparing them for like between
four and maybe even seven years to be
able to improve as a drummer when it
came to the computer science content I
worked in a K-8 school so I saw every
single grade kindergarten through eighth
grade and so I had to think about how am
I going to prepare students from
kindergarten all the way to nine years
later from when they graduate wait from
that school to be able to develop their
expertise over that extended period of
time if all I was doing was staying one
lesson ahead I would not necessarily be
able to help those students achieve a
deeper understanding of computer science
at the level that I would if I had my
own deep level understanding of the
domain which is why in my free time like
air quotes there on weeknights weekends
Etc I was constantly learning new
languages new Ides to work with Etc so
that way I could improve my
understanding of computer science
because again I have no background in it
even though I've worked with Evergreen
kindergarten through doctoral students
my phds in music education not in
computer science education I have no
degrees in it I had to learn all this
stuff that way I could support the
students I was working with to help them
when they got stuck or to know oh the
direction you're heading or that's an
interesting idea however there is a
roadblock in that platform that's going
to prevent you from doing whatever it is
that you want to do I wouldn't know that
if I didn't have an in-depth
understanding and it's the same thing
for teachers at least if you're doing
interest driven project-based learning
which we talk about in so many different
episodes on this particular podcast if
you're doing puzzle based where the the
curriculum is kind of teaching the
content to the students and you're just
kind of there making sure they get
through the content and not necessarily
guiding them yourself and that's a
completely different approach you might
not need to know much but I would argue
that kind of approach is kind of
treating all students the same way which
is not going to be as beneficial or as
neat of a learning experience for the
students well if they were to instead
work on something individualized and
interest driven but check out all the
podcasts that I have Linked In the show
notes at jaredalui.com to learn more
about interest driven learning and
whatnot because I rant about that and
explore that in many other episodes now
the office kind of unpacking this
particular research question that there
is some feedback that the lessons may
have been too long or not enough time to
actually teach them or that students
were just kind of Simply struggling with
the content or even that the
paraprofessionals didn't really
understand well why are we doing this
like what's how does this connect what's
the point of this now what was
interesting about this is the
researchers assumed that the
paraprofessionals and the teachers were
going to collaborate and kind of
communicate with each other but that
didn't necessarily happen and that's
something I saw time in again whether I
was teaching music classes or like
computer science classes like there was
very little dialogue going on like
sometimes I had teachers I I didn't even
know what they looked like until Midway
through the year because they just
dumped their class off right outside my
door and I never even saw them like they
just like literally wouldn't even go up
to my room they just leave and just
assume that the students were being like
well behaved like sometimes I'd come
back from a meeting with a principal
that like ran late and I get to the
class like a few minutes late and like
there's nobody there supervising them
it's like cool well I'm glad nobody lit
anything on fire so I say that to just
kind of vent that yeah there's usually
not a lot of collaboration going on
especially when you don't have time and
your time is like kind of planned for
you like oh well you have this like
Wednesday off well guess what you're
spending it in plc's time that's not
necessarily going to allow you to
collaborate or communicate with people
like in other classes or outside of your
PLC alright so research questions two
and three was kind of on the students's
perceptions this is really interesting
if you take a look at figure three in
particular so a large number of the
students said that okay this was
interesting they enjoy enjoyed it they
saw some connections and they understood
what was going on but what's really
interesting is the comparison between
the two different groups this is from
page seven quote across both the
quadrilateral and triangle lessons and
compared to their peers in the Cs only
implementations more students in the
cross context implementations found the
lessons interesting saw connections to
their mathematics classes and understood
the programming end quote a little bit
further down on page seven quote this
suggests that encountering Cs and
Mathematics content in both the
classroom and the computer lab helps
students more effectively see the
connections end quote so in other words
instead of learning it all in one space
where you're learning both Computer
Science and Mathematics at the same time
instead of like combining it so that you
are learning mathematics in a CS class
and learning CS in a mathematics class
they're better able to see the different
connections between that approach than
the other approach where it is just a
purely integrated class or purely
integrated lesson this has a lot of
implications for the field if we can
find that this is true in other con
context again this is a single District
in a rural setting so maybe this finding
wouldn't translate to other classes but
one thing that I don't really understand
and know based off of what I was reading
maybe I just missed it somewhere is
whether or not they're receiving twice
as much instruction on the content and
like when they were doing the
mathematics class and the Cs class so it
kind of like twice as much the
reinforcement or were they receiving the
exact same amount of instruction in the
integrated class where it was not
cross-context spread between the two
different classes like if they spent 30
minutes of math 30 minutes since yes
learning this thing compared to the
other group that spent 60 Minutes in
class learning mathematics and CS at the
same time maybe then that is a valid
comparison but if it's like 30 30
overall then I don't know about that it
would make sense why the other students
would be able to have a better
understanding of it because they spent
twice as much time in it than a purely
integrated class alone instead of
cross-context now at the end of these
unpacking scholarship episodes I like to
kind of share some lingering questions
and thoughts so one of them is how would
the study have compared with teachers
instead of paraprofessional and then
what about experienced CS Educators
versus new to CS Educators no offense to
paraprofessionals but they don't have
the experience and understanding to be
able to work with students at quite the
same level that teachers do there's
clearly a huge Continuum between like
teaching ability among teachers among
paraprofessionals Etc and there might be
some overlap within that however in
general I would say that
paraprofessionals don't have a sort of
an understanding as teachers do so how
those two kind of compare and then what
about teachers who have been teaching CS
for a long time versus this is their
first time doing it it's important to
kind of like explore those different
Avenues as well rather than just looking
at the type of integration that is being
used which again is also very important
but another question that I have is
what's your rationale for integrating or
not integrating and does the approach
that you're using align with that
rationale so I've often seen districts
who are integrating because teachers
can't cram even more subject areas into
their school day so instead of having a
standalone CS class that would take away
from other time they instead are going
to integrate it into a science class or
any Ela class or mathematics or whatever
but is that going to provide the best
experience for students if your reason
for integrating is you think that CS is
extremely important but the way you are
integrating is not placing it in that
level of importance that kind of aligns
with your rationale perhaps that's
something that you should explore as an
administrator hey we really value this
thing this is part of our mission
statement or whatever and we clearly
think that CS is an important thing in
the future however when it comes to time
we are not necessarily spending the
amount of time on this that we should
this is a very important conversation to
have with different administrators and
to figure out where are you going to
take away from in order to provide the
appropriate level of time to experience
and explore this new subject area and
what happens five years from now when
you add another one I talk about this
more in many of the other integrated
curricula podcasts so make sure you
check those out in the show notes at
jaredoleery.com I'm keeping this episode
relatively short because I want to make
sure that I don't rant about things I've
already talked about in other episodes
there's well over 180 other episodes so
there's plenty more topics to explore
but if you enjoyed this episode please
consider sharing with somebody else or
leaving a review on whatever app you're
listening to this on if you have
questions that you'd like me to explore
or kind of talk about in upcoming
episodes feel free to leave a comment on
the YouTube video but thank you so much
for listening stay tuned next week for
another episode until then I hope you're
all staying safe and are having a
wonderful week
Article
Shehzad, U., Clarke-Midura, J. E., Beck, K., Shumway, J. F., & Recker, M. M. (2023). Rethinking Integrated Computer Science Instruction: A Cross-Context and Expansive Approach in Elementary Classrooms. Publications. Paper 6.
Abstract
“This study examines how a rural-serving school district aimed to provide elementary-level computer science (CS) by offering instruction during students’ computer lab, a class taught by paraprofessional educators with limited background in computing. As part of a research-practice partnership, cross-context mathematics and CS lessons were co-designed to expansively frame and highlight connections across – as opposed to integration within – the two subjects. Findings indicate that the paraprofessionals teaching the lessons generally reported positive experiences and understanding of content; however, those less comfortable with the content reported lower student interest. Further, most students who engaged with the lessons across the lab and classroom contexts reported finding the lessons interesting, seeing connections to their mathematics classes, and understanding the programming. In contrast, students who only learned about mathematics connections within the CS lessons (thus not in a cross-context way) reported significantly lower levels of interest, connections, and understanding.”
My One Sentence Summary
This study compared perceptions of teaching and learning the intersections of computer science and geometry in integrated and cross-context approaches.
Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts
How would this study have compared with teachers instead of paraprofessionals?
What about experienced CS educators versus new-to-CS educators?
What’s your rationale for integrating (or not)?
Does the approach you’re using align with that rationale?
Resources/Links Relevant to This Episode
Other podcast episodes that were mentioned or are relevant to this episode
Contemporary Venues of Curriculum Inquiry
In this episode I unpack an excerpt from Schubert’s (2008) publication titled “Curriculum inquiry,” which describes different venues or types of curriculum that educators and education researchers should consider.
Educational Aims, Objectives, and Other Aspirations
In this episode I unpack Eisner’s (2002) publication titled “Educational aims, objectives, and other aspirations,” which problematizes behavioral education objectives and discuss two alternative approaches.
In this episode I unpack an excerpt from Schubert’s (1986) book titled “Curriculum: Perspective, paradigm, and possibility,” which describes different examples, intents, and criticisms of “images” or “characterizations” of curriculum.
The Centrality of Curriculum and the Function of Standards: The Curriculum is a Mind-altering Device
In this episode I unpack Eisner’s (2002) publication titled “The centrality of curriculum and the function of standards: The curriculum is a mind-altering device,” which problematizes curricula and standards by discussing how both can deprofessionalize the field of education.
The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance
In this episode I unpack Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Römer’s (1993) publication titled “The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance,” which debunks the notion of innate abilities within a domain and describes the role of deliberate practice in achieving expert performance.
In this episode I unpack Bresler’s (1995) publication titled “The subservient, co-equal, affective, and social integration styles and their implications for the arts,” which “examines the different manifestations of arts integration in the operational, day-to-day curriculum in ordinary schools, focusing on the how, the what, and the toward what” (p. 33).
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