Use peer-led, project-based professional development led by teachers in similar contexts¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The project supported educators seeing themselves as part of the region's computing future partly by "providing hands-on, project-based trainings on computational thinking, led by other K-8 teachers who work in similar contexts." For the first three years a Pittsburgh STEAM teacher with about 10 years of experience trained the Eastern KY teachers. A second supporting approach was having local industry representatives explain how computing skills matter in their sectors and how K-8 teachers play a role.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Trainers who are K-8 teachers working in similar contexts
• Hands-on, project-based training formats

Constraints¶

• Initially required importing an experienced outside trainer (a Pittsburgh STEAM teacher) before local teachers could take over

Target Learners¶

• K-8 teachers in Eastern Kentucky

Target Learning Goals¶

• Computational thinking teaching skills
• Seeing their role in shaping the region's future

Affordances¶

• Civic Imagination Framework Rural Ct

Related Strategies¶

• Educator-led peer professional development workshops on learner variability
• Foster teacher agency through low-risk, high-reward opportunities with escalating responsibility
• Sequence pathway development activities across three years: buy-in, SCRIPT assessment and summer institutes led by model-district teachers, then piloting with microcredentials
• Connect computational thinking to local maker and problem-solver heritage to teach it responsively to local culture

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Drawing on Kinship: Rurally Sustaining Computational Thinking Pathways. (2022). Presentation, Learning Design Wiki extraction. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/