Investigating the Impact of Computing vs Pedagogy Experience in Novices Creation of Computing-Infused Curricula

We compare subject area block-based programming lessons made by two participant groups new to creating K-12 computing curricula. The first group consists of 29 high school interns with prior programming experience but not formal pedagogical training. The second group consists of 86 teachers who attended an infusing computing professional development, with formal pedagogical training but no background in programming. We examine a total of 113 lessons for their use of scaffolding, teacher accessibility, equity, and computing and subject area content. Our analysis extends prior work showing novice-student creator strength in conveying content knowledge and difficulty in incorporating equity into coding lessons. Compared to lessons created by the teacher group (less coding, more pedagogical experience), our results show that teachers also struggle with including equitable practices and opportunity for culturally responsive and identify affirming activities. However, they were much stronger in including assessment focused items. Furthermore, teachers were able to provide adequate support for coding and content knowledge. Our exploration of scaffolding included in these lessons shows that scaffolding included differs by creator and that projects involving worked examples were more often correlated to more evidence of equitable practices. Through this research, we gain insight into what additional knowledge and training are needed to help creators make higher quality and more accessible computing lessons for non-computer science courses.