Online Professional Development for

Computer Science Teachers: Gender-Inclusive

Instructional Design Strategies

Joanna Goode1, Kirsten Peterson2, Gail Chapman3

1
University of Oregon, USA, 2Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC),
3
Exploring Computer Science

ABSTRACT
Computer science (CS) education is plagued by a gender divide, with few girls and
women participating in this high-status discipline. A proven strategy to broaden
participation for girls and other underrepresented students interested in CS is the
availability of teacher preparation that requires classroom teachers to grow their
knowledge of CS content as well as the pedagogical practices that enhance inclusive
learning opportunities for historically underrepresented students. This case study
describes the design and impact of an Online Professional Development (PD) for CS
teachers, a year-long PD program aimed at broadening participation in the United
States. Using survey and observation data from more than 200 participants over
three years in PD settings, this paper examines how the design of an online
learning community model of PD provides an inclusive venue for teachers to
examine their belief systems, develop inclusive pedagogical practices, and
collectively transform the culture of CS classrooms to places that support all
learners. Findings suggest that purposeful facilitation creates a transformative
culture of “shared experience” whereby facilitators and groups of teachers engage
in collaborative lesson planning and debriefing discussions, in both synchronous and
asynchronous sessions. This case study can inform other online PD efforts aimed at
broadening participation in computing.
KEYWORDS
Gender, Computer Science, Online Professional Development, Learning Community,
Mentoring, Online Facilitation, Broadening Participation

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 International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology, Vol.11, No.3

Online Professional Development for

Computer Science Teachers: Gender-Inclusive
Instructional Design Strategies
INTRODUCTION
Women and girls are sorely underrepresented in computing. Computer science (CS)
education has been perpetually plagued by gender discrepancies in participation; in
the United States, CS participation for decades has hovered around 20% for girls in
secondary and college CS courses (College Board, 2016; Taubee, 2017). In the
United Kingdom, only 9% of girls’ schools offer computing at A-level, compared
with 44% of boys’ schools, and 25% of mixed-sex schools and colleges (Kendall,
2017). School experiences are important for engaging girls in computing, and
teachers are the key resource for providing these experiences. Research suggests
that social opportunities and encouragement, often from a teacher or other
educator, has a tremendous influence on girls’ decisions to pursue computing
(Google, 2014).

Studies have shown that boys often arrive at school with more extensive
experience with computing through informal experiences such as robotics,
computer camp, or coding with a male relative. Aware of these experiences,
educators can mistake boys’ preparatory privilege with actual aptitude and interest
in learning about CS. Since CS is typically an elective course, guidance counselors
and teachers often tap into their biases around who “belongs” in CS to select which
students to enroll, using preparatory privilege as a proxy. Thus, girls, who are less
likely to be given these same earlier opportunities, are not steered towards CS
courses, and do not receive the social encouragement that signals to them they
belong in CS, further exacerbating societal stereotypes (Cheryan, Master, &
Meltzoff, 2015). When girls do participate in CS courses, they often report a “chilly
climate” and curriculum and pedagogy that fails to build on their knowledge or
capture their interests (Goode, Estrella, & Margolis, 2006).

As Cheryan, Master, and Meltzoff argue (2015), broadening the representation of

CS to include features that make a CS learning experience appealing to a variety of
cultures or people with differing interests and ways of learning, including in online
spaces, is required to draw more diversity into the field. Their research
demonstrates stereotypical features associated with CS (technically oriented,
singularly focused on technology, socially awkward, masculine, etc.), when depicted
in educational spaces, had significant gender effects on girls and women’s sense of
ambient belonging in the field. When undergraduates were given a choice between
participating in an online learning setting with stereotypical objects associated
highly with CS majors, e.g. images of science fiction materials and stacks of soda
cans, or one with non-stereotypical objects, only 18% of women, and 60% of men,
chose the learning setting with more stereotypical objects. This “geek effect”
(Kendall, 2017) resulted in women reporting a lower sense of “belonging” in the
stereotypical environment - they didn’t feel connected to the stereotypical objects
or to the people they assumed existed in the environment. Men, on the other hand,
reported an equal and sometimes greater sense of “belonging” in the stereotypical

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environment. Ultimately, this research illustrates that the more women felt a CS
learning environment was stereotypically masculine in nature, the less interest they
had in participating in the environment. This study suggests that inclusive CS
education must include more diverse representations of people, the work involved,
and the values associated with this work.

In recent years, the “CS for All” movement has aimed to move CS from the
peripheries of the school curriculum into the core, where all students can access
this knowledge. Exploring Computer Science (ECS), the widely used introductory CS
curriculum in the United States, has led an equity-based approach to instructional
materials and PD in the United States since 2008 (Margolis, Goode, & Chapman,
2015). ECS’s equity-based approach is crucial and attempts to level the playing
field where boys and students from majority groups currently enjoy a benefit of
greater access to quality CS education; while quality CS curriculum is good for all
students, a CS curriculum lacking a focus on equity is harmful for all students – and
it’s particularly harmful for students from underrepresented groups. Beginning in
Los Angeles, the ECS program initially grew through regional hubs, supporting
teachers in a 2-year professional development (PD) program in large urban areas,
including seven of the largest school districts in the country. Unlike other high
school CS courses, ECS student enrollment reflects the racial demographics of
school districts, and girls make up 46% of students (Margolis, Goode, & Chapman,
2015).

However, to meet the needs of schools outside urban areas, for three years ECS
has supported a “National Teacher Cohort” to introduce the ECS course in schools
from across the U.S. (Camp, Campos, Goode, & Astrachan, 2017). While each
cohort of teachers met face-to-face for a week-long PD the summer before they
began teaching the course, the typical ECS one-day face-to-face quarterly PDs are
impractical when considering the travel time and cost for convening in a single
location. To address this need, we created a set of four quarterly online PD
“experiences” to support the development of teachers’ content knowledge, inquiry-
based instruction, and equity pedagogy in CS that supports learning for girls and
other historically underrepresented students.

This case study examines how these online PD experiences support the goals of
increasing gender diversity in CS education. Ultimately, we seek to address in this
case study: What features of online learning during the school year support
teachers in developing inclusive teaching practices to support girls in CS learning?

METHODOLOGY
The participants of this case study are high school teachers who were implementing
the ECS course for their first year while simultaneously participating in a series of
four ECS online PD experiences. Three national cohorts of teachers participated in
the online PD over the last three years, with a total of 200 participants from 34
states. Each cohort had already engaged in a week-long face-to-face PD where they
met one another and learned together in a residential college setting. These cohorts
were racially diverse and had significant proportions of female teachers, with
cohorts comprised of 52%, 53%, and 67% women, across the three cohorts.

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This case study draws from a sequential mixed-methods approach, gathering post-
professional development participant surveys from each of the 4 quarterly PDs;
observing individual and interactive participant comments and discussions across
the 4 sessions; and observing facilitators’ interactions online, and an in-person
focus group with 7 facilitators at the end of year 3. The surveys focused on
teachers’ self-reported learning of content, inquiry, and equity issues, as well as
their impressions of the online environment. Meanwhile, the observations allowed
us to capture discussions over time amongst participants and facilitators. These
data were coded based on themes of teachers’ content development, teachers’
instructional learning, and teachers’ learning around equity and inclusion. Further,
the online setting environment underwent an iterative series of changes and
modifications based on initial analysis of this data to better support the needs of
teachers.

FINDINGS
Because teachers are the most important resource for students in providing
inclusive learning opportunities in classroom settings, instilling an equity-lens for
teaching CS, a field steeped with gendered stereotypes and patterns of
participation, is essential when preparing teachers. The data in this study pointed to
the importance of how design elements of this online learning experience shaped
teachers’ experiences and knowledge around inclusive CS education.

Online PD Environment Description

The four quarterly online sessions in this case study were designed to prepare
teachers to teach the final four units of the ECS curriculum: Web Design;
Programming; Computing and Data Analysis; and Robotics. From beginning to end,
each PD workshop took place across two weeks, with an estimated time of six hours
of learning time for each participant. All sessions took place during the school year.

Initially, we elected to use the Moodle course management system to house the
ECS online PD content. Moodle is an open-source course management system with
extensive online learning functionality. Using Moodle allowed us to efficiently
develop and facilitate the first year ECS online PD sessions. While teachers and
facilitators had a relatively easy time participating in the initial online PD
environment, over time, modifications were made to address frustrations with
navigation, technical language, and what felt like a “forced” layout.

After two years of adapting the initial environment based on user feedback, we
moved to a more custom environment designed in WordPress using the LearnDash
plugin. The combination of these tools allowed us more flexibility in terms of
customizing the entire look-and-feel, as well as much of the functionality, of the
learning environment. Specifically, the highly customizable nature of the new
environment allowed us to be more purposeful in creating a space that is
structurally more welcoming to participants.

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Using the Computing and Data Analysis PD session as an example, Figure 1

illustrates the layout and types of learning participants experience within each
section of the online PD environment.

Figure 1: ECS Online PD Environment

Content is organized in the center of the screen in a collection of green accordion

partitions, each of which drops down to display a particular activity. The Session
Navigation bar on the right displays the progression of activities which build on
each other both within each section (such as the Welcome section or the Journal
section) and across the entire PD session.

The online PD design was an iterative process, with content and design adaptations
taking place each quarter of each of the three years, based on participant and
facilitator feedback. This design featured a Professional Learning Community (PLC)
orientation to create an atmosphere that strengthens teachers’ confidence and
knowledge in inclusive CS pedagogy. PLCs are noted for engaging educators in a
reflective process that asks participants to “dig deeply into learning” and expand
their world views (Garrison, 2006). Further, we combined the use of self-guided
online resources and teachers’ desires (Wang & Chen, 2008) to collaborate on
“planning, designing, and delivering instruction” (Fullan, 2005).

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Inclusive Design of Online PD Experience

We found that modeling inclusive practices for teachers’ online learning sparked
ideas for teachers about similar structures for their own pedagogy with students.
Creating a welcoming environment with a PLC atmosphere provided an inclusive
environment for all teachers to engage in their own learning. The data suggests
that several features of the learning environment were particularly notable for
presenting an inclusive, non-stereotypical approach to CS PD. The table below
summarizes these key design features embedded in both the environment and
facilitation over the course of a PD session. Qualitative teacher comments are
provided along with each of these design features to illustrate thematic remarks
and reflections from online PD participants.

ECS Online PD Design Features and Implementation Strategies

Design PD Implementation Teacher Reflections
Feature

Welcoming, The online environment has an intuitive “I liked that this was
not Weeding and organized design that ensures spread out more and
immediate, one-click access to each gave us an opportunity
section and key functionality of the PD to preview the lessons
from the home page. The design is before we joined our
bright and colorful; images include synchronous sessions.
people who are active and represent a This told me that you
variety of racial groups. guys really did listen to
our feedback from the
Beginning with the Welcome section, first PD session. It
participants are introduced to the helped with the
session goals, tasks, and expectations facilitation and the
through both video and written pacing.”
materials; they select a day and time for
the collaborative synchronous session;
and they connect with facilitators and
each other around a fun, relevant topic
in the Casual Chat discussion forum.

High-Touch Every section of the PD includes venues “I think the facilitators

Facilitation, for dialogue and collaboration among is the big piece, the
not Self- colleagues and facilitators via threaded online facilitators.
Guided discussion forums, web-conferencing Because there's so
synchronous sessions, shared online much dialogue, and
documents, and ongoing supportive when we were going
email. through it, we were like
lost by ourselves, but
Facilitators develop relationships with with a facilitator
participants starting with a personal keeping everyone
email to introduce the PD, set a together, that’s how it
welcoming tone, and invite active works.”
collaboration throughout PD session. If

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participants are absent from the PD for I “I really appreciate all

more than three days or if they need of the work the ECS
extra help, facilitators follow-up with team does in providing
individual emails or phone calls. these PD sessions. They
Facilitators model empathy and the act are all friendly and very
of valuing all questions and problems supportive in their
that occur, ensuring responses to all comments while also
participant concerns. encouraging us to think
deeper and focus on
Facilitators operate with the goal of Equity and Inquiry
modeling inquiry-based learning and when it is so easy to
promoting it as a critical ECS just think of CS
instructional philosophy. In discussion Content.”
forums, facilitators help participants
think through each other’s questions to
come up with potential solutions and
guide teachers in appreciating the value
of “struggling through” a task.
Facilitators highlight ideas contributed
by participants, helping them make
connections to each other’s experiences,
thus fostering collective intelligence and
problem solving.

Focused on In the Journal section, participants “Discussions on

Teaching, not reflect on their completion of an activity strategies were
Content from the ECS curriculum, deepening beneficial to me. I am
their understanding of equity and always looking for new
inclusive instructional strategies - this ways to stimulate my
reflection and subsequent dialogue students and ensure
among participants takes place in a that everyone
discussion forum, guided by the participates. Activities
facilitator. Participants next move to the such as journals,
Learn section where they experience think/pair/share, and
ECS content as learners prior to planning notice/wonder were
a group lesson: unit materials, model strategies that I will
lessons taught by ECS teachers, and use in the future in
resources targeted to their and their many diverse ways”.
students’ identified needs include
reflective and interactive elements that
prepare teachers to relate their learning
experience with the activities to
instructional strategies they’ll use with
their students.

Collaborative, In the Develop section, participants ” “Group collaboration

not Individual come together in a synchronous session helped me a ton. I was
held in Adobe Connect, first as a whole able to realize that my

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group to discuss with facilitators the students are not the

overarching goals for the session (which only under-served
lesson they are focusing on and critical groups of students that
focus areas for equitable practice) and are thriving in this
then moving to breakout rooms to work curriculum.”
in groups of 3-4 where they use a
collaborative Google doc and Adobe’s “The discussions that
voice and text chat tools to “remix” ECS my collaborative
lessons with collective instructional planning group had,
strategies to meet their students’ needs. both about the lesson
and about our
At the conclusion of the Develop section, experiences with ECS
participants move to the Discuss so far, were the most
section where one member of each small powerful. I process
group posts their lesson strategies to the information much
Lesson Plan Sharing Forum, while all better through
participants review plans shared by discussion than reading
others and discuss how the ideas and it was
support inquiry and equity-based tremendously helpful to
teaching practices. This part of the PD is hear a variety of
dynamic and highly participatory - perspectives and
teachers capitalize on each other’s ideas experiences. It was
for teaching the same lesson and obtain also very helpful to
immediately applicable strategies to use hear that other people
in their own classroom, regularly were having similar
reporting on the PD final survey that the struggles and
lesson plan “remixing” and their own successes.”
takeaways were the highlight of the
session.

Teacher A professional and conversational tone is “One very unique part

discourse, not emphasized in all language associated about this course is the
Technical with the PD sessions. Each section title PD's and the ECS for all
Jargon indicates what teachers will do during teachers’ forums create
that portion of the PD and models the a national community
type of classroom structure and dialogue for this subject. It is
that ECS lessons promote. For example, very exciting to be able
rather than using a title such as “final to discuss the
survey”, we included a “Wrapping Up” curriculum with
section to help teachers immediately feel teachers all around the
the pulling together of their learning country. It's like a
activities where we “invite” teachers to huge Professional
share feedback that impacts design Learning Community.”
iterations.

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DISCUSSION
Preparing teachers to teach “CS for All” is a formidable challenge for CS Education.
Given the longstanding exclusion of women and people of color studying CS,
preparing teachers with specific skills to present and teach through inclusive
practices is essential for reaching goals of equity. In this case study, we found that
an online environment that models pedagogy, nurtures the development of
teachers, and fosters a collaborative approach to learning is particularly effective
for teachers’ skills and confidence in teaching for equity and inclusion. In particular,
participants described the PD as responsive to the needs of teachers, they valued
the relational, high-touch facilitation, and appreciated the use of teacher
vocabulary, rather than technical jargon. In addition, we saw that this online setting
encouraged participants to explore new concepts and teaching methods that were
designed to be more inclusive for girls.

These findings extend the research of Cheryan, Master, and Meltzoff (2015) and
showcases how the (re)design of an intentionally non-stereotypical environment for
CS teacher PD can be inclusive and attentive to participants’ sense of belonging.
Not only were the aesthetics and instructional design devoid of more technical and
masculine markers, but the high-touch facilitation and collaborative lesson-planning
approach disrupted the stereotypical notion of the solitary nature of learning CS.
Finally, it is not insignificant that the online PD program has also attracted a
significant number of women CS teachers who had a space to engage in learning
about CS content and pedagogy together. Given the dominance of men in this field
historically, having women-majority cohorts in ECS has helped shift the perceptions
around gender and who does CS. Since research suggests that having women
teachers in STEM fields is correlated with higher rates of females who graduate
from college with STEM majors (Bottia, 2015), building the cadre of women CS
teachers further disrupts stereotypical notions of CS education that might prevent
girls from pursuing the subject.

Based on lessons learned from this case study, some simple things others can do to
replicate ECS’s online PD model include the following:

1. Ensure that the PD program is overtly focused on equity - participants should

represent traditionally underserved populations and cultural context should be
woven throughout the learning experience.

2. The PD should be heavily facilitated by those with CS curriculum experience and

experience in creating and sustaining a learning community online - this is “high-
touch” interpersonal communication and relationship-building at the core.

3. Center the PD around shared/collaborative experiences where teachers come

together to share specific instructional strategies for addressing the curriculum with
their own students; teachers from different environments will learn from each other
and the collective intelligence of the group will build skills not just in CS content but
in equity-based teaching.

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4. Design a simple online environment to house content; a homepage with clear

navigation and an intuitive, linear content progression is key to ease of use. Course
management systems offer many design options but they can also be hard to
streamline. Remember that less is best.

5. Include multiple, ongoing ways to collaborate throughout the learning experience

and actively facilitate dialogue among participants. For example, use threaded
discussions because they are accessible at all times and allow for thinking time
between comments; use Google documents or other tools for collaborative co-
creation of lessons or instructional products; use web conferencing software with
breakout room capability in order to have live meetings as a whole group and
simultaneously allow small groups to collaborate in breakout rooms with facilitators
on hand to drop in and provide guidance as needed; use a visual discussion tool like
Padlet that allows a full view conversation including images and/or media.

6. Facilitators must stay in touch with participants - use email and phone to connect
with individuals if they are absent, and offer reminders about deadlines while using
a personal touch to communicate.

7. Understand that your PD is iterative - always focus on the user experience and
feedback, making sure to regularly make both technical and content updates based
on input and keep them informed of what you updated, acknowledging their
contributions to the learning community.

This case study reveals that even online, relational approaches to teacher learning,
within a highly-facilitated learning community that presents a non-stereotypical CS
environment, are optimal for preparing teachers with the content, pedagogy, and
orientation towards equity and inclusion that support girls in CS.

CONCLUSION
Computer Science education efforts are expanding across the globe, and the
pervasive concerns of equity and inclusion, alongside the need to prepare teachers
to teach computing, are amongst the most significant challenges in bringing CS
learning to all students. This case study demonstrates how online PD can address
these challenges simultaneously – preparing teachers with a welcoming,
collaborative environment where they themselves can engage in learning about CS
that mirrors the inclusive practices that will support the learning of girls in their
own classrooms.

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