Infusing Computing: Analyzing Teacher Programming Products in K-12 Computational Thinking Professional Development

In summer 2018, we conducted two week-long professional development workshops for 116 middle and high school teachers interested in infusing computational thinking (CT) into their classrooms. Teachers learned to program in Snap!, connect CT to their disciplines, and create infused CT learning segments for their classes. This paper investigates the extent to which teachers were able to successfully infuse CT skills of pattern recognition, abstraction, decomposition, and algorithms into their learning products. In this work, we analyzed 58 teacher-designed programming products to look for common characteristics, such as project type, intended coding requirements for their students, and code features/functionality. Teacher-created products were classified into five types: animation, interactive story, quiz, intended game, and simulation/exploration tools. Coding requirements varied from using and/or explaining provided code, modifying existing code, programming with starter code, to building entire programs. Products were classified according to the extent to which they involved sprite manipulation, questions/answers, event handling, drawing, and control blocks. We found that teachers from different disciplines created products that vary in type, coding requirements, and features to suit their specific needs. Moreover, we found relationships between discipline, project type, and the required coding teachers expected students to do. Our results inform future Infusing Computing Professional Development (PD) to provide more targeted training to support different teacher needs.