Computational Literacies Lab

0005 Pedagogical content knowledge

The earlier parts describe what a computer science teacher needs to know, and this one describes how to help students learn it. Pedagogical content knowledge is the knowledge that joins the two: knowing which ideas in a subject are hard, what students tend to believe about them, and which ways of teaching them work. Its sections follow the arc of designing and teaching a unit, from planning through instruction to assessment. Planning comes first. Section 0005.a starts from a learning goal and works out what students must know and be able to do to reach it, 0005.b asks how to find out where students are in relation to that goal before instruction begins, and 0005.c describes how to connect the goal to the knowledge and experience students bring with them, in ways that respect their cultures and communities. Instruction comes next. Section 0005.d surveys research-based strategies for teaching computing, from worked examples to building personally meaningful projects, and 0005.e explains how to justify a choice of strategy by showing how it actually produces learning. Section 0005.f turns to assessment, gathering evidence of what students have learned and using it to decide what to do next. Section 0005.g closes the part with inclusion and equity, which concern every earlier stage: who has historically been kept out of computing, and how a teacher can design a classroom in which every student has access, support, and a sense of belonging.