After surveying the literature surrounding elementary education computer science professional development, it is clear that collaboration is not only important for individual teacher development, but also for the overall improvement of CS education. Collaboration affects teacher attitudes, content knowledge, and pedagogy. Often PD focuses on content and pedagogy, without addressing the teacher’s attitude toward the subject. In a classroom, teachers influence student learning more than any other school related factor (McGill et al., 2021). A teacher’s feeling of unpreparedness can negatively affect CS/CT instruction. Many elementary teachers lack sufficient STEM content knowledge and report feeling unready to teach STEM content (Nesmith & Cooper, 2019).
My lit review found that professional development can positively shape teacher attitudes about computational thinking and coding in elementary schools; these attitudes are varied, with many teachers initially lacking the belief that CT is essential to teach. In one study, 94% of teachers were open to integrating CS in the classrooms after professional development, as compared with “40% of teachers would need convincing and 16% would be reticent” (El-Hamamsy et al., 2021, p. 2469). Even single day workshops can positively affect a teachers’ attitude toward CS. (Boz & Allexsaht-Snider, 2022). Successful CS professional development should aim to enhance teachers’ self-efficacy, asset and equity mindset, and interest in teaching CS. Interdisciplinary learning is highlighted as essential for successfully implementing Computer Science and Computational Thinking (CS/CT) instruction in elementary classrooms. With CS/CT PD, teachers are more enthusiastic about integrating CT into their instruction and teachers believe that CT can engage learners when integrated with other disciplines (Boz & Allexsaht-Snider, 2022; Ketelhut et al., 2020). “Providing support to practicing teachers in integrating CT into their subject areas and curricula is a critical aspect of promoting CT for All” (Ketelhut, et al 2020). There is definitely room for growth in this area.