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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how a middle school science teacher, new to programming, supports students in learning to debug physical computing systems consisting of programmable sensors and data displays. Design/methodology/approach This case study draws on data collected during an inquiry-oriented instructional unit in which students learn to collect, display and interpret data from their surrounding environment by wiring and programming a physical computing system. Using interaction analysis, the authors analyzed video recordings of one teacher’s (Gabrielle) pedagogical moves as she supported students in debugging their systems as they drew upon a variety of embodied, material and social resources. Findings This study presents Gabrielle’s debugging interactional grammar, highlighting the pedagogical possibilities for supporting students in systematic ways, providing affective support (e.g. showing them care and encouragement) and positioning herself as a learner with the students. Gabrielle’s practice, and therefore her pedagogy, has the potential to support students in becoming better debuggers on their own in the future. Originality/value While much of the prior work on learning to debug focuses on learner actions and possible errors, this case focuses on an educator’s debugging pedagogy centered on the educator debugging with the learners. This case study illustrates the need for educators to exhibit deft facilitation, vulnerability and orchestration skills to support student development of their own process for and agency in debugging.

This study examines how a rural-serving school district aimed to provide elementary level computer science (CS) by offering instruction during students’ computer lab, a class taught by paraprofessional educators with limited background in computing. As part of a research practice partnership, cross-context mathematics and CS lessons were co-designed to expansively frame and highlight connections across – as opposed to integration within – the two subjects. Findings indicate that the paraprofessionals teaching the lessons generally reported positive experiences and understanding of content; however, those less comfortable with the content reported lower student interest. Further, most students who engaged with the lessons across the lab and classroom contexts reported finding the lessons interesting, seeing connections to their mathematics classes, and understanding the programming. In contrast, students who only learned about mathematics connections within the CS lessons (thus not in a cross-context way) reported significantly lower levels of interest, connections, and understanding.

These instructional guides are used in the 5th-grade computer labs in conjunction with JavaScript/CodeHS. Computer Lab Specialists are provided with step-by-step instructions and tutorial videos to teach students how to use functions and for-loops to write programs for Karel the Dog to model multiplying fractions. These lessons support learning the following CS ideas: repeat/for, functions, algorithmic thinking, and abstraction. These activities are meant to be delivered after the “Fractions, Functions, & For-Loops: Preparatory Activities” and in conjunction with the mathematics lesson plans, “Cache Code Math: Fractions Unit.”

This document entails three 5th grade mathematics lesson plans. The lessons are intended to be implemented in conjunction with the computer lab activities found in "Cache Code Math: Fractions, Functions, & For-Loops." The mathematics focus of these lessons is multiplying fractions, which is paired with the computer coding concepts of functions and for-loops.

These instructional guides are used in the 5th-grade computer labs in conjunction with JavaScript/CodeHS. Computer Lab Specialists are provided with step-by-step instructions to review with students how to use functions and for-loops. These lessons support learning the following CS ideas: repeat/for, functions, algorithmic thinking, and abstraction. These preparatory activities are meant to be delivered before the "Cache Code Math: Fractions, Functions, & For-Loops."

This study examines how a rural-serving school district aimed to provide elementary-level computer science (CS) by offering instruction during students’ computer lab time. As part of a research-practice partnership, cross-context mathematics and CS lessons were co-designed to expansively frame and highlight connections across – as opposed to integration within – the two subjects. Findings indicated that most students who engaged with the lessons across the lab and classroom contexts reported finding the lessons interesting, seeing connections to their mathematics classes, and understanding the programming. In contrast, a three-level logistic regression model showed that students who only learned about mathematics connections within the CS lessons (thus not in a cross-context way) reported statistically significant lower levels of interest, connections, and understanding.

This paper reports on a study of the dynamics of a Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) oriented around design, specifically the co-design model. The RPP is focused on supporting elementary school computer science (CS) instruction by involving paraprofessional educators and teachers in curricular co-design. A problem of practice addressed is that few elementary educators have backgrounds in teaching CS and have limited available instructional time and budget for CS. The co-design strategy entailed highlighting CS concepts in the mathematics curriculum during classroom instruction and designing computer lab lessons that explored related ideas through programming. Analyses focused on tensions within RPP interaction dynamics and how they were accommodated when RPP partners were designing for co-design activities, a critical component that leads to curricular co-design itself. We illustrate these tensions with examples of clusters of activity that appeared repeatedly among the research and practice team members when "designing for co-design".

This document entails five computer lab activities for 5th grade. The activities are intended to be implemented in conjunction with the mathematics lessons “Cache Code Math September Unit: Repeats in Math and Programming.” Here the mathematics concept of exponents as repeated multiplication is explored using the computer coding concept of repeat loop blocks.

This document is comprised of a set of six 5th grade mathematics lesson plans. The lessons are intended to be implemented in conjunction with the computer lab activities “Jump Using My Blocks and Variables,” “Guess the Triangle,” and “Guess the Quadrilateral.” Geometry concepts (classifying triangles and quadrilaterals) are paired with computer coding concepts of conditionals and variables.

This instructional Scratch card is used in 5th grade computer labs. Here students are given step-by-step instructions to code a quiz in Scratch using properties of quadrilaterals. The activity is meant to be delivered in conjunction with the mathematics lesson plans, “Cache Code Math March Unit: Geometry in Mathematics and Programming.”

This instructional Scratch card is used in 5th grade computer labs. Here students are introduced to My Blocks and variables. This is meant as an introductory lesson to “Guess the Triangle” and “Guess the Quadrilateral.” The activity is meant to be delivered in conjunction with the mathematics lesson plans, “Cache Code Math March Unit: Geometry in Mathematics and Programming.”

This instructional Scratch card is used in 5th grade computer labs. Here students are given step-by-step instructions to code a quiz in Scratch using properties of triangles. The activity is meant to be delivered in conjunction with the mathematics lesson plans, “Cache Code Math March Unit: Geometry in Mathematics and Programming.”

This document entails four 5th grade mathematics lesson plans. The lessons are intended to be implemented in conjunction with the computer lab activities found in “Integrated Lesson (CS and Math)”. The mathematics focus of these lessons is exponents as repeated multiplication, which is paired with the computer coding concepts of repeat loop blocks.