A computer science and robotics integration model for primary school: evaluation of a large-scale in-service K-4 teacher-training program

Integrating computer science (CS) into school curricula has become a worldwide preoccupation. Therefore, we present a CS and Robotics integration model and its validation through a large-scale pilot study in the administrative region of the Canton Vaud in Switzerland. Approximately 350 primary school teachers followed a mandatory CS continuing professional development program (CPD) of adapted format with a curriculum scaffolded by instruction modality. This included CS Unplugged activities that aim to teach CS concepts without the use of screens, and Robotics Unplugged activities that employed physical robots, without screens, to learn about robotics and CS concepts. Teachers evaluated positively the CPD and their representation of CS improved. Voluntary adoption rates reached 97% during the CPD and 80% the following year. These results combined with the underpinning literature support the generalisability of the model to other contexts.

The symbiotic relationship between educational robotics and computer science in formal education

Barbara Bruno, Francesco Mondada

Educational Robotics (ER) has the potential to provide significant benefits to edu-cation, provided an increase in outreach by transitioning from the extra-curricular initiatives in which ER has thrived to formal education. As Computer Science (CS) Education is undergoing curricular reforms worldwide, the present study addresses the case of a Digital Education reform that included ER as a means to teach core CS concepts. Approximately 350 teachers from the first four grades of primary school participated in a mandatory two-year continuing professional development (CPD) program. The first year of the program was dedicated to CS and introduced teach-ers to CS Unplugged (CSU) and Robotics Unplugged (RU) activities. As such, we analyse the interplay between these activities and focus on teachers’ voluntary adop-tion of the proposed content in classrooms. This is complemented by an analysis of their perception and recommendation of ER. The findings highlight three main points. Firstly, ER benefits from the integration in the CS CPD, as this provides the necessary traction to introduce ER into teacher practices (the teachers freely devoted 2275 h to ER activities in their classrooms, over two years). Secondly, the pres-ence of ER activities in the CS-CPD allows a higher proportion of teachers to adopt the CS content, as there are teachers that favour one type of activity over the other. Finally, the globally positive perception of ER registered in this study is relevant for two reasons: teachers were not voluntarily participating in the CPD, and results did not differ between pioneers and novices.

2021

A case for co-construction with teachers in curricular reform: Introducing computer science in primary school

Barbara Bruno, Helena Kovacs, Francesco Mondada

With the introduction of Computer Science (CS) into curricula worldwide, researchers have investigated whether CS could be introduced transversally, as a support other disciplines. Few however consider both student learning and the teachers’ perspective in their assessments. In a co-constructive approach to translational research, we collaborated with teachers, in two case studies involving two classes each, to investigate how CS content could be used transversally. More specifically, teacher inputs and student learning data were combined in a mixed methods analysis to determine whether two CS Unplugged (CSU) activities from the curriculum could be leveraged to teach disciplinary content in primary school. The findings indicated that the CSU activities could be leveraged for maths and spelling, but require validation at a larger scale. More important, though, are the takeaways of the co-constructive experience with teachers. Interestingly the benefits of co-construction went both ways. While researchers gained a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of the activities, teachers i) appreciated having detailed student learning analyses, devoid of biases and impressions, ii) changed their perspective about researchers, and iii) were open to other collaborative research initiatives which they found to be drivers of change and innovation in their practice. The way co-construction was approached also impacted the teachers’ perception of their experience. Indeed, while one study was researcher-driven and included teachers, the other was teacher-driven and included researchers. When teacher-driven, the teachers felt they had a more active role, thus reflecting more on the study design, results and implications. Provided the positive impact that co-construction may have on innovation in teacher practices, different co-construction modalities must be investigated, as well as their implications on all stakeholders, including researchers.

ACM2022

A Robotic Teacher Community to Foster the Integration of Educational Robotics in School

The digital society requires the acquisition of skills related to computer sciences like computational thinking or competences in coding. Also transversal competences like communication, collaboration and creativity are increasingly important. Educational robotics is perceived as a valuable tool to increase such competences and is more and more present in the new school curricula. However only few teachers carry out educational robotics activities in their classes. The Roteco project aims to train school teachers in the field of educational robotics and computer science and to develop a community where teachers can find support and exchange experiences and educational activities in order to increase the presence of robotics in school classes. In the project a teacher training and a collaborative platform have been developed. The platform allows teachers to contact other teachers or experts. Teachers can easily publish, select and download didactic activities of other pairs with the related materials. In this paper the project and first results are presented.

Springer, Cham2021

A case for co-construction with teachers in curricular reform: Introducing computer science in primary school

Barbara Bruno, Helena Kovacs, Francesco Mondada

ACM2022