What is it about?
We studied teacher self-efficacy during the development of a middle school Computer Science Education Curriculum that utilized game design and the Unity game development platform. The participants in this study were six middle school teachers from four middle schools in the southeastern United States. They participated in a year-long professional development program learning the Unity game development platform, elements of game design, and foundations of learner motivation. Prior to beginning the project participants expressed confidence in being able to facilitate student learning after participating in the planned professional development, but there was some uneasiness about learning and using Unity. A face-to-face workshop over several days with participating teachers and most of the research team increased the confidence in being able to use the curriculum with students.
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Why is it important?
Teacher self-efficacy has been shown to be a predictor of their use of new technologies and methods. Given the increased focus in may parts of the world on Computer Science education, it is important to know how to prepare teachers in this area.
Perspectives
This project has been interesting and fun. The COVID-19 pandemic moved much of the professional development activities online and limited any classroom observations. Despite these challenges, the project has produced some good findings.
Professor of Instructional Technology Charles B. Hodges
Georgia Southern University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Teacher Self-efficacy During Professional Development for Game Design and Unity, March 2022, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3478432.3499039.
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