Introduction—What Is this Guide About? - Guide to Teaching Computer Science: An Activity-Based Approach - page 4

computer science material, good computer science educators should also be famil-
iar with a significant body of material that will expand their perspectives on the
field, and consequently, enhance the quality of their teaching” (p. 77). Among the
issues they mention are the question what is computer science?, a bird's-eye view
of the discipline, and familiarity with teaching tools and methods.
Lapidot and Hazzan, in a series of papers, address these issues practically and
discuss different topics related to computer science teacher preparation in general
and to the MTCS course in particular (Hazzan and Lapidot 2004a , b , 2006 ; Lapidot
and Hazzan 2003 , 2005 ). They refer to different topics that should be included in
such a course, like pedagogical approaches for teaching different subjects, tools for
assessing pupils' performance, and teaching of social issues such as ethics. They
also emphasize the need to use active learning when teaching the MTCS course.
Hazzanet et al. ( 2008 ) add that computer science teacher preparation programs
should include some research elements, such as reading assignments of papers that
deal with computer science education research and mini-research projects to be car-
ried out by the prospective computer science teachers themselves.
In recent years, several new publications about the MTCS course were pub-
lished, as is described in what follows.
According to Armoni ( 2011 ), the methods of course should serve as a bridge
between subject matter knowledge (SMK), pedagogical knowledge (PK), PCK,
and curricular knowledge. Armoni recommends that the MTCS course should in-
clude specific PCK, web-based scientific inquiry, various ways of asking questions,
prospective teachers' beliefs, problem-based learning. In general, it should aim at
integrating all kinds of knowledge, as well as beliefs, and should incorporate con-
creteness, whether by involving a field-experience component or by using other
tools, such as case studies and problem-based learning. The course should provide
opportunities for collaboration, and reflection should be extensively employed
throughout the course.
According to Yadav and Korb ( 2012 ), a methods course is typically where pro-
spective teachers learn about “pedagogical ways of doing, acting, and being a teach-
er.” They argue that high school CS teachers must have in-depth computer science
knowledge as well as strong PCK, developed through a MTCS course. Therefore,
a MTCS course should be “about how CS is learned and taught, and about how
classrooms can provide an environment for learning CS.”
They introduce a MTCS course, taught at Purdue University, that develops stu-
dents' PCK through experiences that allow them to think and act like computer
science teachers: understand ways of representing and formulating the subject mat-
ter and make it understandable to students, know which topics students find easy
or difficult to learn, which ideas (often misconceptions) students bring with them
to the classroom, and how to transform those misconceptions, understand how
students develop and learn, and how to teach diverse learners. Specifically, their
course trains prospective computer science teachers to combine pedagogical prin-
ciples with computer science content to improve the learning experience for their
students. The course involves reading, discussing, and reflecting on papers that de-
scribe pedagogical practices of teaching computer science principles.