Examining Teacher Perspectives on Computational Thinking in K-12 Classrooms

This paper examines K-12 teacher perspectives on the promise and challenges of computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT) education for all students across three states and three school districts-one rural, one suburban, and one urban. Through a series of teacher survey and focus groups, this exploratory research presents the perspectives of K-12 teachers across three distinct vantage points: First, to what degree do these teachers see a clear value as to why CS and CT matter to their students' learning? Second (if the pathway is deemed valuable) who, in their estimates, are the crucial players to help develop a coherent CS/ CT K-12 pathway and what is their capacity? Third, how can such a prospective pathway be practically implemented? These elements of why, who, and how are essential to wider questions around equity of student access to high quality computing, and with this paper, they come from the perspectives of teachers-a group too often left out of early discussions around K-12 curricular design. Discussion section points to how these preliminary surveys and focus groups with teachers offer an early predictor in terms of how each district develops its own K-12 computing pathway, with the expectation that such focus groups offer a powerful research/ evaluation protocol that can be repeated annually among districts to gauge to what extent teachers' hope (and concerns) about comprehensive K-12 computing pathways are warranted.