{"id":45922,"date":"2023-10-20T15:47:16","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/code-club-helps-teachers-get-with-the-program-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:47:16","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:47:16","slug":"code-club-helps-teachers-get-with-the-program-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/code-club-helps-teachers-get-with-the-program-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Code Club helps teachers get with the program – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Teachers are the real heroes of the coding in school movement and need to be given more support, Code Club national program manager Kelly Tagalan says.<\/p>\n

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The not-for-profit group has already taught more than 5000 students the basics of coding through after-school classes, and now with coding being included in the new national curriculum, the group is turning its attention to helping the teachers embrace this change.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s a huge barrier for educators,\u201d Tagalan tells StartupSmart.<\/i><\/p>\n


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\u201cSome of them have been teaching for 20 years and have been putting their heart into the profession, and this is a major change.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe teachers are the heroes of the story. They\u2019re the brave ones taking this on.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The organisation is offering free coding classes for teachers across the country, and has already trained about 480 educators.<\/p>\n

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They aim to triple the number of teachers that have gone through the program next year.<\/p>\n

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Code Club has run programs in more than 200 schools in Australia, but Tagalan says it\u2019s a very different process to actually teach the teachers.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTeaching kids directly is more of a play. It\u2019s a bit of fun with a lot of enthusiasm,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWorking with teachers, we\u2019re looking at the bigger picture of how we fit this into the year-long plan for learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A political talking point<\/b><\/h2>\n

Coding is become a prominent political issue this year, with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten signalling his focus on it during his 2015 budget reply<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The new national digital technologies curriculum, which includes coding being taught from year 5, was recently officially endorsed by the now former education minister Christopher Pyne<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Tagalan says it\u2019s very positive that this issue now has a level of prominence, but it\u2019s important that the right message is passed on.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe biggest message we would like for everyone engaging with this conversation to understand is that coding is just a tool,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe outcome we desire is to have stronger problem-solvers and computational thinkers to make for a stronger Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ensuring gender diversity in STEM education<\/b><\/h2>\n

A stark lack of gender diversity is a huge problem with STEM education and jobs, Talagan says, and it\u2019s important that teachers know how to address coding in order to make it accessible for all.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe really help teachers to understand the importance of a gender neutral learning environment when teaching STEM,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have to be hyper aware of the language we use and the metrics we reward kids for performance on.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTo divide the class up and name a top boy and a top girl is in a passive way allowing boys and girls to compare each other rather than saying this is a community.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Gender diversity has been a main focus of Code Club, and the program is now made up of 54% girls.<\/p>\n

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\u201cJust about every time I return to a community I get teachers coming up and saying, \u2018I\u2019ve never known this quiet, reserved and shy girl to be such a superstar\u2019,\u201d Tagalan says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat used to be a unique outlier, and now it has become expected.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat Code Club does when it is successful is open up more opportunities for girls to step up and say, \u2018I\u2019m good at this\u2019, in a collaborative environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The teachers program will also have an especial focus on reaching out to lower socioeconomic areas that are often left out of the coding in education push, Tagalan says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cA lot of educators are left out of the loop,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re concentrating directly on these communities and we\u2019re getting a warm and enthusiastic response.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere are some incredibly dedicated educators willing to carry the torch for us.<\/p>\n

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\u201cCode Club works in a variety of communities. It requires so little, you don\u2019t even need an internet connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Starting early<\/b><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s crucial that this focus on diversity and accessibility begins from primary education, she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf we allow STEM education and digital technologies to only be taught in secondary school we\u2019ll lose most of the girls and a lot of the children of colour and children speaking English as a second language,\u201d Tagalan says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey\u2019ll self-select out in order to protect themselves from rejection or to better align with what they see as their place in society.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf we teach it at age eight or nine then it\u2019s really a safe place for kids to jump in and be a part of something that\u2019s bigger than themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Code Club is currently on the hunt for more corporate partners to help keep the training program running into next year.<\/p>\n

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Tagalan says endorsement from politicians or prominent figures can do wonders for the group.<\/p>\n

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After Tasmanian minister for information technology and innovation Michael Ferguson publicly backed Code Club, membership in the state grew rapidly, and now 23% of all the kids involved with Code Club are from Tasmania.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe conversations with stakeholders are really good, they\u2019ve been really positive and we\u2019re incredibly optimistic,\u201d Tagalan says.<\/p>\n

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Want to grow your business with Instagram?<\/i> StartupSmart School can help<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teachers are the real heroes of the coding in school movement and need to be given more support, Code Club<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45922"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}