Abstract: Increasing role of computing in our lives has pressed policies such as the National Education Policy (2020) to propose teaching and learning of computing in school classrooms. Introducing computing in schools requires us to pay attention to how teachers teach, how students learn, and how teachers can be supported with resources such as curricular materials that are connected to ongoing concerns related to computing within societies and communities. During my talk, I will share examples from my work to highlight the three key aspects: 1.) how a high school teacher taught computing while simplifying disciplinary ideas for his learners; 2.) how students learned computational ideas socially; and, 3.) how teachers are currently designing introductory high school curriculum to include social justice concerns around computing. First, I will lay out the key tenets of sociocultural and sociopolitical theories of teaching and learning that shape my views about computing classrooms. I will then share examples from my work that show how an experienced teacher taught computing ideas while simplifying them for beginner students in a high school classroom, how high school students learned socially, from one another, while debugging their projects, and how experienced high school teachers are drawing from their experience to inform social-justice-centered curriculum design. At the end, I will invite the audience to imagine similar teaching and learning opportunities and challenges within the Indian context.
About the speaker: Dr. Gayithri Jayathirtha is a Computing Innovation Fellow at the University of Oregon, Eugene (USA), where she works with computing teachers to think about and develop critical computing materials. In April 2022, she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a PhD in Learning Sciences, concentrating on K-12 computing education. Prior to pursuing her doctoral program, she earned her master's degree in Learning Sciences and Technologies from the University of Pennsylvania and her undergraduate degree in Computer Science Engineering from Bangalore University, Bangalore (India). Gayithri was a K-12 math teacher and teacher workshop facilitator in Karnataka, India for six years before starting her graduate studies.