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Although context-based teaching and learning has been investigated extensively in science education, little is known regarding the use of contexts for teaching CS in secondary education. The aim of this study was to examine the characteristics of contexts suitable for teaching algorithms and to investigate teachers' considerations regarding those contexts. This study examines teachers' practices and reasoning concerning the use of contexts and is based on explorative, empirical research. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with seven CS teachers and analyzed qualitatively. The results of this study reveal several characteristics of effective contexts for teaching algorithms and show teachers' ambitions to address the variation within the student population when selecting contexts that advance students' algorithmic thinking. The found characteristics may serve as recommendation for designing contexts. Development of teacher education and professionalization activities may benefit from the discussion of teachers' motives and concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the importance that high school computer science teachers place on a teachers’ professional learning community designed around an inquiry- and equity-oriented approach for broadening participation in computing. Using grounded theory to analyze four years of teacher surveys and interviews from the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) program in the Los Angeles Unified School District, this article describes how participating in professional development activities purposefully aimed at fostering a teachers’ professional learning community helps ECS teachers make the transition to an inquiry-based classroom culture and break professional isolation. This professional learning community also provides experiences that challenge prevalent deficit notions and stereotypes about which students can or cannot excel in computer science. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Due to a program reform in Israel, experienced CS high-school teachers faced the need to master and teach a new programming paradigm. This situation served as an opportunity to explore the relationship between teachers' content knowledge (CK) and their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). This article focuses on three case studies, with emphasis on one of them. Using observations and interviews, we examine how the teachers, we observed taught and what development of their teaching occurred as a result of their teaching experience, if at all. Our findings suggest that this situation creates a new hybrid state of teachers, which we term “regressed experts.” These teachers incorporate in their professional practice some elements typical of novices and some typical of experts. We also found that these teachers' experience, although established when teaching a different CK, serve as a leverage to improve their knowledge and understanding of aspects of the new content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]