Individual Teacher Self-Efficacy Model

The PD provider in in Case Model 5 worked with a subset of teachers from 10 schools, which were located in different boroughs throughout New York City.

The PD provider created a self-assessment tool that teachers completed before engaging in PD. The teacher assessment measured various factors of a teacher’s CT competency and readiness, such as:

• Comfort with technology
• Knowledge of CT concepts
• Implementation of CT in the classroom
• Valuation of CT and instructional technology
• Concerns regarding CT integration

The assessment was used to gain insight into these factors to create professional learning goals specific for each teacher in the project. Based on these goals, the PD provider customized PD activities that aligned with each teacher’s individual areas of growth. Teachers received two individual coaching sessions per month, and at the end of the year, they attended a two-day CT camp hosted by the PD provider.

The focus of the PD was to help teachers become acquainted with CT concepts in general, and then to make connections to the existing curriculum and learn specific CT vocabulary.

• PD provider to school ratio: 1 to 10
• Years the school participated in PD program: 2019–2022
• Primary focus of PD: Teacher self-efficacy

Because Case Model 5 consisted of 10 schools located throughout all five New York City boroughs, two schools were selected as the focus schools for research efforts. Both schools were public schools that served a high population of students with economic need.

School 1: 

• School funding type: Public
• Grades: Pre-K–5
• School size/enrollment: 547
• Race/ethnicity: 70% Hispanic
• English language learners: 17.6%
• Poverty and economic need: 85%
• Borough: Staten Island

School 2:

• School funding type: Public
• Grades: K–5
• School size/enrollment: 748
• Race/ethnicity: 70.6% Asian
• English language learners: 16%
• Poverty and economic need: 90%
• Borough: Queens

Across the 10 schools, a total of 110 teachers participated in the PD.

• Year 1: Integration efforts in each school started with all 4th and 5th grade teachers participating in PD.
• Year 2: Integration expanded to include 3rd grade teachers.

Since each teacher’s PD experience was tailored to the goals identified by the self-assessment, the content areas in which CT was integrated varied. However, all integrated lessons took place within math, science, or the ELA curriculum.

• Vision of schoolwide integration developed by: School administrators, teacher’s individual goals, and PD provider
• Content Area(s): Determined by individual teachers in science, ELA, or math
• Grade levels: 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades

CT lessons primarily focused on adapting lessons within the teacher’s existing curriculum. Teachers worked with the PD provider to find places where they felt comfortable introducing CT and where its concepts were prevalent. Depending on each individual teacher’s comfort with CT, some teachers made larger adjustments in their lessons and integrated CT more frequently on their own.

Teachers used formative assessment practices to evaluate students’ CT learning, including observing students during project work and listening for CT vocabulary. Teachers also include CT as a focus of assessment during end-of-unit projects, using rubrics that were applicable for the different content areas.

• Lesson development: Teacher and PD provider integrated within existing curriculum
• Primary instructional approaches used in lessons: Using CT academic language
• Primary assessment practices used: End-of-unit projects and content-area assessments

“I think that you have to think about the type of language that you’re going to use when you’re delivering your lessons…You have to think about whether you’re setting aside opportunities for students to explore, where you’re having conversations where you’re empowering them or letting them decide which component of CT they used. You have to obviously tell them those different parts of CT…you could be like, ‘what you just did there, that was debugging. Or what you did right there, that was abstraction.”

—Teacher in Case Model 5

Each school had teachers in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades participate in PD, integrating CT within the math, science, and ELA curriculum across multiple grade levels. This model structures itself to be well positioned to sustain CT efforts in future years, despite staffing turnover or changes in teachers’ positions. However, due to the nature of the PD model, teachers primarily attended PD individually with the provider and did not have frequent opportunities for collaborative planning, which can result in teachers using different lesson plans and applying CT inconsistently within grade levels.