A Survey of Computer Science Teacher Preparation Programs in Israel Tells Us: Computer Science Deserves a Designated High School Teacher Preparation!

This paper focuses on the development and implementation of computer science (CS) teacher preparation programs, which are among the educational and pedagogical challenges faced by those involved in the current development of CS. It presents a survey that reflects the accumulative knowledge gained in Israel over the past twenty years with respect to CS teacher preparation. We explored nine institutes (six universities and three teacher education colleges) that offer CS teacher preparation programs. The survey indicates that while the programs vary in their implementation details, they are all motivated by the unique characteristics of CS, which play a central role in their design. We suggest that this observation further emphasizes the obvious: CS deserves designated CS teacher preparation programs. We therefore hope that this survey will contribute to the community of CS educators in general and to practitioners involved in developing CS teacher preparation programs in particular