Reflecting on the Impact of a Course on Inclusive Strategies for Teaching Computer Science

As the number of teachers teaching computer science grows, it is increasingly important to be mindful of the training they receive with respect to broadening participation in computer science. Through our program, we have trained over 50 teachers in the greater Boise Metropolitan region, who have in turn taught over 1400 students computing concepts through courses such as Exploring CS, AP CS Principles, and AP CS A. These courses have an excellent curriculum that contains a mix of computational thinking concepts such as a focus on creativity, abstraction, coding, as well as increasing awareness about the cyber footprint of the students with respect to security and privacy. While the curriculum is excellent, we need to be more mindful about incorporating pedagogical strategies that promote inclusive teaching especially for women and minorities who are traditionally underrepresented in computer science.

To address the challenges associated with teaching a truly inclusive course, we developed a new course titled “Inclusive Strategies for Computer Science Education” that draws attention to the strategies that have been studied over the years in STEM and CS education literature. We present the contents of the course along with a post-hoc qualitative survey on the applicability and practicality of the material discussed in the course.