Second level computer science teacher self-efficacy and how it influences the use of teaching and assessment strategies

As software transforms our world, it has become increasingly impor tant to educate the next generation about the fundamental importance of Computer Science. As a result new Computer Science (CS) curric ula are being introduced at secondary school level in education sys tems around the world and new cohorts of teachers are undertaking professional development in CS in preparation for delivery of these pro grammes in schools. Compared to other subject areas, professional development (PD) in CS faces the challenge that most teachers in this domain are out-of-field teachers, meaning that they qualified in one subject area but are requested to teach another subject in which they are not qualified. Also, there are fewer development efforts and studies in this domain unlike other subject areas. It is widely acknowledged that self-efficacy plays an important role in teacher professional perfor mance and achievement. Teacher’s self-efficacy can also impact their instructional practices in the classroom and the academic progress of their students. The goals of this thesis are to 1) Investigate teacher self-efficacy to teach learning outcomes in a new CS curriculum 2) In vestigate teacher self-efficacy levels around their use of tools and tech nologies and 3) Investigate the relationship between teacher self-efficacy to teach a new CS curriculum and their use of teaching and assessment strategies in the classroom. This study describes the development and implementation of an instrument that measures secondary school teach ers’ self-efficacy to teach a new CS curriculum in the context of a PD for CS programme. The instrument was administered to two cohorts of teachers over a three year period. The importance of teacher self efficacy is widely acknowledged in the literature and the results of this study indicate that teachers’ self-efficacy increased over the course of the PD programme. This research contributes to the body of knowl edge on measuring teacher self-efficacy to teach a new CS curriculum in the context of a CS PD programme in lower secondary schools, which is acknowledged as a under-researched area in CS education research. The results provide evidence on: teachers’ self efficacy to teach a new CS curriculum; the relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy and the use of teaching strategies in the classroom; the relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy and the use of assessment strategies in the class-room.