Comparing Teachers’ and Preservice Teachers’ Opinions on Teaching Methods in Computer Science Education

Abstract

Teaching methods are a variety of pedagogical approaches that can be used by teachers to enable student learning in the classroom. While the efficiency of these methods largely depends on the characteristics of the individual learners and the classroom dynamics, the characteristics of the teachers and their opinions towards these methods determine the actual integration in the classroom. But an appropriate judgment on the suitability of these methods for different teaching situations needs years of practice, which is why preservice teachers’ opinions towards using these methods might differ from other teachers’ experiences. To address this mismatch in Computer Science Teacher Education, we replicated a study by Zendler et al. with 16 preservice teachers and compare the results in this article. Results indicate that preservice teachers have a more generally positive opinion towards the use of teaching methods in specific learning phases than experienced teachers, but also a lower range of preferences. Problem-based learning was found to be the best-ranked method for both, preservice and experienced teachers, while other methods’ evaluations differ. In particular, preservice teachers also prefer project work and programmed instruction. We conclude that teaching methods should be a part of Computer Science Teacher Education, not just in theory, but also in practice.