What are good teaching practices for computer science teachers to follow?
Teaching computer science requires a unique approach like math, languages, and any other subject you care to name. Here are some teaching best practices that computer science teachers can implement in their own classrooms:
Start with the fundamentals: Make sure students understand basic concepts well before moving on to more advanced topics. Ideally, lessons will be structured so that each subsequent idea follows the preceding ones.
Use real-world examples: Relate computer science concepts to their uses in the real world to help students see the relevance and practical applications of what they are learning. Subjects like data structures can easily seem abstract and tedious until students understand how crucial they are.
Encourage student engagement: Engage students in hands-on activities and debates to help them develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills. These are often the most valuable learning outcomes of a computer science course, even for students pursuing non-technical careers.
Use scaffolding techniques: Trying to teach the whole of some topic all at once rarely yields good results. Break down complex problems and concepts into smaller, more manageable parts, and provide students with guidance and support as they work through each component.
Provide regular feedback: Learning computer science is often confusing; assessing how well or poorly you’re doing is not always possible. Regular feedback, whether in the form of test scores or informal comments on their work, encourages students to reflect on their learning comprehension and identify areas where they need to improve.
Foster a collaborative learning environment: Encourage students to work together in groups and provide peer teaching and learning opportunities. Some students, naturally, will be more skilled and knowledgeable in certain areas. Assigning group projects encourages these to share their expertise and develop skills such as communication and teamwork. These are often exactly what future employers will be looking for.
Keep up with the latest trends: Spend some time every week to stay current with the latest technological developments. Incorporating these into your teaching as appropriate allows you to provide more valuable and relevant examples of whatever topic you’re teaching and give better career advice.
Continually improve your teaching skills: Actively seek professional development opportunities to enhance your teaching skills and stay current with best practices in computer science education. Subscribing to teaching magazines or blogs, talking with colleagues, or even videotaping your classes can help.
Teachers can immensely impact the future course of their students’ lives. Knowing what works and doing more of that, and what doesn’t, and doing less of it will make you significantly more effective in the classroom. After all, your fundamental goal should be to prepare your students for future academic and career success in computer science.
2Sigma School uses project-based learning to bring students closer to real-world problems, even in introductory courses. These projects are well scaffolded to allow students to learn in bite-sized chunks while seeing how their work fits in a larger whole. Our teachers regularly provide 1-1 support to every student and use data-driven progress dashboards to quickly identify where each student is on their learning journey. To learn more about how 2Sigma School is improving teaching practices in computer science, give us a shout.