CSTA: A Teacher-Centered Approach to Reimagining CS Professional Development
I haven’t had time to write about this post, so I’m making this link post.
At a busy time in the term, someone brought this article to my attention, and they made some wishy-washy comment about it that indicated they had “mixed feelings” when, in reality, they only expressed negative feelings as their friends contributed their comments. To me, mixed feelings means there’s good and bad. The “good” being identified seemed to be very superficial. The emphasis was on the bad.
If I write about this, I won’t be wishy-washy about it. But as I post the link I want to say that I believe this is a thoughtful piece that highlights problems with CS professional development, and it urges a focus on fundamental concepts and understanding. And in the many years I’ve been teaching in one form or another, including 6 years of high school and several years of teaching undergraduates, graduate students, and in-service teachers (not to mention having experience in doing research on improving expertise in teachers of mathematics) I have come to know how easy it is to overlook meaningful learning (that is, learning that focuses on meaning, developing conceptual understanding – that sort of thing) and focus on flash, surface characteristics, procedures, and everything else that gets in the way.
Anyhow.
See: A Teacher-Centered Approach to Reimagining CS Professional Development
and Spoilers
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