Identifying and formulating teachers’ beliefs and motivational orientations for computer science teacher education

Abstract

How teachers are able to adapt to a changing environment is essentially dependent on their beliefs and motivational orientations. The development of these aspects in the context of professional competence takes place during teachers’ educational phase and professional practice. The overall understanding of professional competence for teaching computer science follows the notion of empirical educational research including beliefs and motivational aspects. This article aims to investigate relevant domain-specific beliefs and motivational orientations for teaching computer science and their consideration in curricula for computer science teacher education. Therefore, results of an expert interview study based on the critical incident technique lead to appropriate descriptions for domain-relevant beliefs and motivational orientations. Results of a broad curriculum analysis indicate how those aspects are normatively considered in computer science university and school education in Germany. The data were analyzed by qualitative content analysis.

Keywords:

• teachers’ beliefs
• motivational orientations
• teacher education
• computer science
• competence modeling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

The research initiative is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research [grant number 01PK11019A, B, C].