The Virtual Pivot: Transitioning Computational Thinking PD for Middle and High School Content Area Teachers
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Date
2021-03-13Author
Jocius, Robin
Joshi, Deepti
Albert, Jennifer
Barnes, Tiffany
Robinson, Richard
Catete, Veronica
Dong, Yihuan
Blanton, Melanie
Byrne, Ian O
Andrews, Ashley
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In 2018 and 2019, Infusing Computing offered face-to-face summer
PD workshops to support middle and high school teachers in integrating computational thinking into their classrooms through
week-long summer PD workshops and academic-year support.
Due to COVID-19, 151 teachers attended the Summer 2020 PD
workshops in a week-long virtual conference format. In this paper,
we describe Virtual Pivot: Infusing Computing, which employed
emerging technology tools, pre-PD training, synchronous and
asynchronous sessions, Snap! pair programming, live support, and
live networking. Drawing on findings from participant interviews
and post-PD surveys, we argue that three categories of changes
(digital tools, formats, and supports for teacher engagement and
collaboration) were effective in increasing participants’ selfefficacy in teaching CT, supporting collaboration, and enabling
participants to design CT-infused content-area lessons. We conclude by discussing how elements of this virtual PD can be replicated to increase teacher and student access to CT practices in
middle and high school classrooms.