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environments extenuating learners' understanding, in some cases it misleading
(Ragonis and Ben-Ari 2005 ) and adds difficulty (Krauskopf 2012 ). Teachers have
to be aware of all those learning obstacles as well.
4.2.2.2 Computer Science Education Research from the Teacher's
Perspective
There are many teaching situations in which a professional teacher should think and
act as a researcher. In this spirit, one of the targets of the MTCS course is to educate
the prospective computer science teachers to become attentive to their pupils, to re-
veal their pupils' conceptions, and to check and track pupils' understandings during
the entire learning process, and not just at its end by a final exam. In this spirit, one
of the messages delivered in the MTCS course is that the “teacher as researcher”
perspective plays a significant role in becoming a professional computer science
teacher. From a broader perspective, research works that examine topics related to
computer science teachers intend to deepen the knowledge and understanding of
the computer science teachers' work. This research addresses teachers' disciplin-
ary knowledge, teachers' pedagogical knowledge, teachers' pedagogical-content
knowledge (PCK), teachers' coping with curricular changes, and teachers' use of
different teaching tools.
Computer science education research may contribute to computer science teach-
ers' knowledge and professional development in general and to the prospective
computer science teachers in the MTCS course in particular, in several ways, as is
outlined in what follows.
Becoming a member of the computer science education community . The famil-
iarity with computer science education research is one component of becoming
a member of the computer science education community. This component in-
cludes, among other things, acquaintance with the collective wisdom gained by
the researchers of the community and with its common and accepted terminol-
ogy.
Increases teachers' awareness of learning processes . Teachers' familiarity with
research in computer science education increases their awareness to different
learners' conceptions, difficulties, and experiences with computer science con-
cepts. This type of knowledge belongs to one of the central categories of Shul-
man's ( 1986 ) teacher knowledge base model—i.e., knowledge of learners—
which can assist teachers, for example, in the preparation process of different
teaching units (see, e.g., Chap. 11). Further, by exposing teachers to the research
in computer science education, teachers can learn from other teachers' experi-
ences, and may be encouraged by the fact that learners in other classes exhibit
similar difficulties to those manifested by their pupils, and that they cope with
similar challenges to those faced by other teachers.
Construction teachers' pedagogical-content knowledge (PCK ). Learning from
computer science education research is valuable also for teachers' construction
of their PCK, another central category of Shulman's teacher knowledge base
model (Shulman 1986 ). This knowledge includes answers to questions such as:
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