Teaching Computing: challenges and successful strategies reported by school teachers Sue Sentance, King’s College London, UK Andrew Csizmadia, Newman University, UK
Teachers of Computing in school were asked about successful strategies that they used in the classroom as well as challenges that they faced. In a time of curriculum change in this subject, the perspectives of these teachers are useful for schools to address and implement. Challenges faced by teachers can be analysed as being either intrinsic to the teacher or having an external cause, and can be something relating to their own practice or to the challenges faced by students. We find that teachers’ own content knowledge and students’ understanding of the subject is more challenging to them than lack of resources, issues around engaging students, and time and assessment issues. In response to this, teachers recommend a range of pedagogical strategies to support students’ understanding which we incorporate practical, hands-on approaches, contextualising abstract concepts, incorporating collaborative work.