Examining teachers' computational thinking concepts in the context of early childhood education

Computational thinking (CT) is a type of problem-solving process that requires using computer science concepts. The most effective way to support this process is the integration of applications to support the CT process into educational environments. In this integration process, another element that is of equal importance to children's discovery of CT is teachers' understanding and knowledge of CT since the effectiveness of the integration of practices that support children's CT processes is closely related to teachers' content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and self-efficacy regarding CT. However, the number of studies examining these elements is quite limited and there is a need for further research in this field. Based on this need, in the current study,it was aimed to reveal the content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and self-efficacy perceptions of preschool teachers regarding CT. Basic qualitative research method was used in the study and the research group was formed with the typical case sampling method. 33 preschool teachers working in Samsun in the second academic period of 2021-2022 volunteered to participate in the research, but two volunteer teachers who stated that they had no knowledge of CT were excluded from the research group. Thus the final sample of the current study consisted of 31 preschool teachers. The data of the research were obtained from the teachers' answers to 12 interview questions and open-ended questions regarding 4 scenarios. As a result of the content analysis,it was concluded that the teachers' content knowledge regarding CT was not completely compatible with the literature, they had some misconceptions, and their pedagogical content knowledge was incomplete Despite this, teachers generally considered themselves to be good or very good in terms of having CT-related skills. They evaluated themselves as sufficient in terms of integrating CT practices into the education program. These contradictory results indicated that the teachers' self-efficacy perceptions regarding having skills related to CT and integrating CT practices might not provide objective and reliable results in revealing their content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. Based on this, it can be said that there is a need for in-service training to improve teachers' content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge about CT, and assessment tools with high reliability and validity to reveal their knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge related to CT.