EPK-2 designed and tested a replicable model of PreK to 2nd grade teacher professional development to address the need for more research in early childhood computer science education. EPK-2 engaged elementary level teachers in computational thinking (CT), a problem-solving process, to integrate expressive computing in art, science, and storytelling activities across the curriculum.
The EPK-2 professional development model focused on generative, long-term learning. We began with an intensive creative computing institute for teachers and (with Cohorts 1 & 2) continued with a year-long series of classroom coaching sessions and teacher meetups.
EPK-2’s approach to teacher education is informed by Generative Professional Development (GPD), a framework emphasizing collaborative, participatory learning. In GPD, teachers gather culturally relevant and content-specific information about students’ abilities and needs to design lessons, implement those lessons, and to reflect on their own and their students’ learning.
Guiding assumptions of EPK-2 included the premise that learning occurs in communities of practice. We recognize that meaningful participation in such communities is always already in process, even in the earliest years. By this view, good teaching begins with noticing and naming what a child already knows and knows how to do, and includes learning activities that strengthen the child’s prior learning to advance their participation in the community. In terms of computer science, and with CT specifically, the goal is to help teachers connect early capacities, or precursors, to traditional content areas in order to nurture each child’s individual learning pathway.
Following from these asset-based assumptions, EPK-2 contextualized CT as a participatory learning process weaving together various curricular objectives, including literacy, math, science, social studies, and social-emotional learning. The goal was to help teachers, schools, and communities build CT pathways from students’ earliest years through their later elementary, middle, and high school education. Such pathways—sustainable, culturally relevant, and rooted in community participation—will advance the national goal of equitable computational fluency for all.