Using Action Research to Distill Research-Based Segments of Pedagogical Content Knowledge of K-12 Computer Science Teachers

Teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is an important factor in all that concerns teaching and learning processes. As such, it plays an important role in pre-service teachers' training and in-service teachers' professional development. In line with this, the pedagogical content knowledge of computer science teachers (CS-PCK) receives considerable attention in current computing education research. However, very little is known about effective ways of extracting valid and reliable CS-PCK segments from the practical work of CS in-service teachers, and hence, only a limited reservoir of such segments is available for CS educators. Here we report on research in which we developed and investigated a new strategy for extracting research-based CS-PCK segments from the practical work of experienced high-school teachers. This strategy incorporated action research, conducted by the CS teachers in their classes, as part of a long and extensive workshop for professional development of CS teachers. Our findings show that the use of action research within the unique platform provided by the workshop yielded a rich variety of research-based CS-PCK segments. Furthermore, our findings emphasize the important role of the social context of the workshop in teachers' success in conducting reliable and valid action research. In addition, teachers' attitudes regarding the use of action research as a tool for improving their practice were positive, as well as their tendency to adopt and use this tool in their practice.