High School Computer Science Teacher Preparation Programs - Guide to Teaching Computer Science: An Activity-Based Approach - page 265

Teacher Preparation Programs and the National Center for Computer Science
Teachers The National Center for Computer Science Teachers serves both in-ser-
vice and prospective computer science teachers. For both in-service and prospective
computer science teachers, the center's website and the journal it publishes include
a rich information hub of pedagogical material. Specifically, for in-service teachers,
the center provides a life-long learning environment that supports their professional
development.
Teacher Preparation Programs and Research in Computer Science Educa-
tion Teacher preparation programs should include some research elements, such
as reading assignments of papers which deal with computer science education
research, and mini-research projects, carried out by the students themselves. Thus,
instructors of computer science teacher preparation programs should be familiar
with research in computer science education, and hence the community of prac-
titioners who are interested in computer science education research enlarges. On
the other hand, when the community of computer science education researchers
is well established, it wishes to deliver its achievements to target audience. One
appropriate framework for this purpose is teacher preparation programs. In addi-
tion, research work are carried out on topics related to teacher preparation programs
and to in-service teachers training (e.g., Brandes et al. 2010 ), which further tighten
the interconnections between these two components of the model.
Research in Computer Science Education and High School Computer Science
Curriculum and Syllabus The existence of a computer science education research
community, with its accumulative experience, eases and guides the development
process of the text books and the teaching guides that accompany the curriculum.
Further, from an organizational nationwide perspective, the mere existence of a
research infrastructure enables decision makers to promote the development of the
curriculum and to allocate the needed resources for this purpose. This, naturally,
boosts the curriculum development. On the other hand, as described above, it is crit-
ical to accompany the development of a high school computer science curriculum
and syllabus with research that assesses the implementation of the curriculum and
evaluates the developed material. A few examples of such research works are pre-
sented in Armoni and Gal-Ezer ( 2003 ), Gal-Ezer and Zur ( 2004 ), and Levy ( 2000 ).
The National Center for Computer Science Teachers and Research in Computer
Science Education Some of the center's activities serve as a research field for com-
puter science education researchers (see, e.g., Brandes et al. 2010 ; Haberman et al.
2003 ; Kolikant and Pollack 2004 ; Lapidot and Aharoni 2008 ; Ragonis and Haber-
man 2003 ). The center also introduces the computer science teachers with themes in
computer science education research. Specifically, several literature reviews were
prepared for teachers on topics such as novice difficulties, recursion learning and
teaching, and pedagogical patterns.