Professional Learning Values

Code.org relies on educators to help achieve its mission of making high-quality, equitable computer science education available to every student in every school. Whether we are working with teachers directly or with the facilitators and Regional Partners who help bring professional learning to teachers, we commit to upholding the following set of values in our interactions, the design of our professional learning experiences, and support for our stakeholders.

Our Educators are the Experts

We view the educators we work with as dedicated professionals and valued collaborators. They best know their classrooms, schools, and districts, and bring valuable experiences and expertise to the professional learning environment. We design our programs to allow participants to share and learn from one another’s experiences, and we seek to encourage them to recognize their agency to make the right decisions for their classrooms and communities. As such, we position our facilitators to be guides and connectors rather than the sole source of knowledge.

Approachable and Robust Supports

We believe our professional learning experiences should be approachable on multiple levels. Barriers to implementing and receiving support for the course should be low, both financially and in terms of ease of use. Our professional learning experiences are designed for educators with minimal or no background in computer science, and provide a safe space to discuss, discover, and practice. As educators prepare and teach the course throughout the year, our program provides support at relevant moments. Through the curriculum itself as well as the materials made available to facilitators for workshops, we value robust and detailed guidance that can be used at the educator’s discretion.

Equity

We believe that achieving equity in CS education requires that (1) all students have access to high-quality CS education, (2) the diversity of students in a CS classroom is representative of the demographics of the school, and (3) the CS classroom is inclusive for all students. We therefore prioritize designing learning experiences for educators that support them in identifying, committing to, and implementing strategies to support access, diversity, and inclusion in their own CS classrooms.

Engaging and Actionable Experiences

We design our professional learning experiences to model the student-centered and hands-on approach used by all of the courses in our K-12 pathway. Participants can expect to be active, engaged, and have fun along the way. Furthermore, we prioritize educators walking away with actionable and practical strategies that can be brought to their classroom the next day. We provide educators with opportunities to plan for their classrooms and reflect on the realities of their specific contexts.

Community

We believe professional learning should be much more than a passive, transactional experience where educators come to learn about a particular course. We dedicate time and space within our professional learning experiences for relationships to develop and thrive among participants. While educators entering our core program will only attend workshops for a fixed period of time, we actively encourage connections with other educators in their community that will continue far beyond the workshop. The local Code.org Regional Partners in partnership with their facilitators serve as critical hubs and supporters of this community.

Leadership Development

At the heart of our mission is educators offering computer science courses to students, but the infrastructure to ensure scalable and sustainable change to the education system requires the support of an entire community. We value and provide leadership opportunities for educators to take their expertise beyond the classroom. This includes working with peers in a facilitator role, offering advice to fellow educators on our online forums, and engaging on advocacy initiatives.

Responsiveness and Transparency

We are committed to listening to and learning from teachers, facilitators, and Regional Partners who work tirelessly to bring the opportunity of computer science to students. We respond quickly to concerns and value frequent and transparent communication.

Approach To Our Values

When we design experiences and supports for teachers and facilitators, we draw from a variety of adult learning strategies as well as best practices for overall great service and partnership.

Role of the Facilitator

We believe facilitators are guides and connectors, and not the sole source of knowledge in the room. A teacher in our program can expect facilitators to be knowledgeable about our curriculum, learning platform, and teaching strategies for equitable, inclusive CS classrooms. Throughout the Facilitator Development Program, we provide multiple opportunities for facilitators to enhance their skills for leading effective learning experiences. In most cases, the facilitator is also a member of the local community they are serving, so is well-positioned to make adaptations appropriate for the local context.

Reflection and Discussion

We frequently ask participants in our Professional Learning Programs and Facilitator Development Program to reflect on their previous experiences, their classroom realities, and the needs of their students. This is in pursuit of constructing a relevant, approachable, and engaging experience for participants, as well as honoring and valuing their existing expertise. Reflection time often transitions into a broader discussion with a small group of peers or the whole room where strategies and insights are shared. There are of course occasions where knowledge needs to be transmitted from the facilitator to participants, but these are kept to a minimum during learning experiences. Even during a facilitator-led presentation, space is still made for participant reflection and discussion.

Growth-oriented

We recognize that the educators we work with are in different places in their careers, have a spectrum of experience with computer science, and may have different perspectives on how issues of access, diversity, and inclusion impact their classrooms and communities. When we design professional learning experiences, we do so with the goal of equipping participants with the information and skills they need to recognize their agency in supporting high-quality, equitable CS education in their unique classrooms.

Preparation that Supports Implementation

Participants expect to gain relevant and actionable strategies, insights, and connections when they are taking time from their busy lives to engage in our Professional Learning Program. We therefore structure the initial workshops in a series around letting teachers gain exposure to and comfort with the materials they will encounter early in the curriculum, and helping them create a concrete implementation plan that works for the realities of their classroom and school. For the courses that offer follow-up workshops, the timing of these workshops is thoughtfully calculated with the school calendar and curriculum pacing recommendations to offer just-in-time support.

Multiple Channels to Give and Receive Support

Many of our educators take a huge leap of faith to learn and teach a new subject. So whether they passively read updates via our regular newsletters, actively explore resources and share insights on the forum, or receive prompt one-on-one email support, we want to make sure that we do everything we can to support them as they bring computer science to their students. For facilitators, the channels of support also include access to one-on-one coaching and monthly community chats focused on learning and growing facilitation skills. We frequently survey the groups we work with to get the most up-to-date insights and feedback on how we can do better, and are committed to improving our support system to better meet needs.

Customer Service Attitude

We are incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to work with hundreds of facilitators and thousands of teachers. Those numbers are rapidly growing as the momentum of computer science education continues to build across the country and the world. Because we interact directly with so many dedicated professionals across a variety of sectors, we are committed to offering fantastic customer service. The individuals we work with can expect that we will be flexible, action-oriented, friendly, and respectful at all times.