Educator course: Teaching Computational Thinking

The Teaching Computational Thinking course was developed with two purposes in mind: 1) for use with teacher educators to help prepare them to integrate CT/CS in education courses and 2) for use with education students as a core subject in pre-service programs.

In this course you will have the opportunity to better understand the main pillars of computational thinking (CT), how CT relates to computer science (CS), and how these concepts can be embedded into the preparation of K-12 teacher candidates. The foundational text and required reading for this course is Computational Thinking and Coding for Every Student: The Teacher's Getting-Started Guide. Otherwise, all other curricular resources are available within the course. We estimate that the course will take about 10-15 hours total to complete the basics, however, there are additional optional activities that may require more time.

The course includes five modules:

  1. Introduction to Computer Science & Computational Thinking
  2. Computational Thinking in Action
  3. Exploring Computational Thinking
  4. Inclusive and Effective Methods for Teaching Computer Science
  5. Designing Computational Thinking Curriculum (in development)

If you are interested in reviewing or using the course, please complete this interest form. The course itself is hosted in Canvas and a section has been created for teacher educators to explore. If you wish to use it with your faculty and/or students, another section or a copy of the course could be created.