Improving teacher use of educational robotics to teach computer science in K-5 mathematics

Abstract

This paper reports on a professional development (PD) effort in which 12 elementary teachers (K-5) in a rural, under-resourced school were equipped with the skills needed to integrate computer science activity into the regular math curriculum. Over the course of a year, the teachers engaged in a week-long summer workshop and monthly follow-up training with in-classroom support as they integrated educational robots into their math curriculum. Surveys, tests, and teacher lesson plans were analyzed to better understand how the PD contributed to teacher's knowledge and skills. Wilcoxon Signed-Rank tests indicated that teacher rankings on their attitudes towards and planning practices with educational robots were statistically significantly higher at the end of the PD. The improvement was further reflected in the quality of their lesson plans. Implications for preparing teachers to use educational robots to teach computer science in elementary mathematics are discussed.