Teaching GCSE Computer Science: Improving Student Engagement (Two Day Course)

Effective teaching of computer science results from strong subject knowledge, and a detailed grasp of effective pedagogy. This evidence-based CPD will help you to develop your classroom practice, focused on the broadening and deepening of classroom pedagogy, helping you to get the best from your students.During this one day course you’ll dive deep into teaching and learning. You’ll learn effective ways to encourage girls in GCSE Computer Science using proven strategies. You’ll also explore how to enrich your curriculum, support students with effective homework approaches and ideas for applying hands on learning within the classroom. The course is based on firm evidence and experience, and will guide you to develop an understanding of what works best in the context of your own school.

This course is for secondary teachers of GCSE Computer Science. This course is fully funded for participants from maintained schools in England who have successfully completed the GCSE Computer Science Accelerator programme.

• 01 | Encouraging girls into computer science – explore the issues surrounding the uptake of GCSE Computer Science by girls and the strategies that can be adopted to increase recruitment at Key Stage 4.
• 02 | Enriching the GCSE curriculum – develop an awareness of how to enrich your computing curriculum to engage a wide variety of students. During this session, you’ll have the opportunity to explore a variety of enrichment activities, followed by creating a personalised action plan, to incorporate these enrichment activities within your teaching.
• 03 | Effective homework strategies – explore how digital technologies can be used to support homework and how these can be embedded within your teaching practice.
• 04 | Hands-on learning – explore a wide variety of hands-on learning activities that can be used in the classroom, to help engage computer science students. Covering topics from areas across the curriculum, you’ll have the opportunity to practice using these readily available activities, before being able to embed them within your lesson planning.

Scheduled live, interactive online sessions led by an experienced practitioner. Flexible facilitator-supported, participant-led tasks, involving deep exploration of the subject content.The course will model teaching approaches that can be taken back to the classroom.

This course is approximately five hours in duration, which may be split across several days.This course is delivered as part of the National Centre for Computing Education.