Middle school math teachers’ pedagogical knowledge of computational thinking

Math achievement of middle school students has been declining in many large cities in the Midwest. One approach that educators have taken to support student math learning has been to incorporate computational thinking (CT) practices into math instruction. CT is a set of practices that help students break down problems, look for patterns, and design step-by-step solutions. Research has shown that students’ CT knowledge is highly correlated with math achievement. Although interventions are available to support teachers in learning to integrate CT into their instruction, there are few brief and reliable measures that directly assess middle school teachers’ knowledge of how to integrate CT into math instruction. Such measures can alert local and state education agencies if there is a need to strengthen this ability in teachers in their schools. These measures are also critical for evaluating the effectiveness of CT integration into professional learning interventions. In response to this need, and as part of the ENgagement and Achievement through Computational Thinking (ENACT) partnership, REL Midwest developed and tested the Computational Thinking–Pedagogical Content Knowledge (CT–PCK) Survey for middle school math teachers. Key findings from the CT–PCK Survey include the following: Evidence from a sample of in-service math teachers at two urban middle schools supports the use of the survey as a valid and reliable tool to measure teachers’ overall knowledge of how to integrate CT into math instruction. On average, teachers answered about 10 of the 16 survey items correctly (61% correct). About a quarter of teachers answered 7 or fewer items correctly (44% correct), and about a quarter answered 13 or more items correctly (81% correct). These findings suggest that the survey is well suited for use by teachers with varied ability to integrate CT into math instruction. Teachers who have traditional teaching certifications and teachers with five or more years of teaching experience scored significantly higher on the survey, suggesting that knowledge of how to integrate CT into math instruction is related to teacher training and expertise. Access the report on the Institute of Education Sciences website.