Co-Design as an Innovative Professional Development Model: Equipping PK-8 Preservice Teachers to Learn and Teach Computational Thinking

Abstract The study reports the results of a cross-disciplinary collaborative team of teacher education, computer science, mathematics, and learning design faculties co-creating a user-centered, self-directed, self-paced, flexible learning environment as an alternative credentialing pathway to preparing PK-8 preservice teachers (PSTs) to teach computational thinking (CT). The co-design model offered an innovative, authentic professional development environment for the teacher education faculty to collaborate with cross-disciplinary team members as designers and developers of the CT self-directed learning materials. The iterative analysis, design, development, and evaluation process allowed faculty to expand their knowledge of CT concepts while exploring and integrating them into their methods courses. The teamwork and multiple perspectives also contributed to creating quality learning materials. The product's small group and field test results provided evidence of the successful implementation, usability, and impact on PSTs’ knowledge, confidence, problem-solving, and critical thinking. The study's implications for practice, challenges, and limitations are discussed.