Project Funding
CSforALL: RPP
Collaborative Network of Grades 3-5 Educators for Computational Thinking for English Learners (CONECTAR) September 1, 2019 – August 31, 2022 Grant No. 1923136 $1,060,000.00 Principal Investigator: Mark Warschauer School of Education University of California, Irvine |
CSforALL: RPP
Collaborative Network of Educators for Computational Thinking for All Research (CONECTAR) September 1, 2017 – August 31, 2020 Grant No. 1738825 Proposal $299,556.00 Principal Investigator: Debra Richardson Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences University of California, Irvine |
Summary
The project aims to build connections to a broader curriculum as reflected in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), to the language and discourse needed to ensure academic success, and to the learners’ peers, community, families and culture needed to make learning relational and meaningful. The work is situated in Santa Ana schools, where the majority of students are low-income, Hispanic, English language learners. It will use the principles of Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR), designing interventions to implement, study and refine, alongside OCDE and SAUSD.
Under the first NSF grant Collaborative Network of Educators for Computational Thinking for All Research (CONECTAR), the team visited partner elementary schools to gather information about the current teaching of computational thinking, conducted a district-wide survey of elementary school teachers, and gathered examples of instructional materials developed nationally to inform local adaption strategies. Researchers worked with a team of teachers to develop pilot materials and instructional units for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade levels. These materials–scaffolded for non-native English speakers–will integrate computational thinking with NGSS and CCSS. In the following year, teachers implemented the instructional materials in their classrooms with support from UCI and OCDE. Data was gathered to study the implementation process, the challenges faced and how they were addressed, the extent to which the materials engage the learners on the emotional, behavioral, and cognitive levels, and the suitability of the materials for promoting computational thinking among the targeted learners. Under the second grant (CONECTAR 2.0), the initiative will continue to iterate the curriculum with educators of SAUSD with a focus scaling the curriculum to fourth grade classrooms in the district.
Under the first NSF grant Collaborative Network of Educators for Computational Thinking for All Research (CONECTAR), the team visited partner elementary schools to gather information about the current teaching of computational thinking, conducted a district-wide survey of elementary school teachers, and gathered examples of instructional materials developed nationally to inform local adaption strategies. Researchers worked with a team of teachers to develop pilot materials and instructional units for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade levels. These materials–scaffolded for non-native English speakers–will integrate computational thinking with NGSS and CCSS. In the following year, teachers implemented the instructional materials in their classrooms with support from UCI and OCDE. Data was gathered to study the implementation process, the challenges faced and how they were addressed, the extent to which the materials engage the learners on the emotional, behavioral, and cognitive levels, and the suitability of the materials for promoting computational thinking among the targeted learners. Under the second grant (CONECTAR 2.0), the initiative will continue to iterate the curriculum with educators of SAUSD with a focus scaling the curriculum to fourth grade classrooms in the district.