Teacher Professional Development and Collaboration to Integrate CyberSecurity in Mathematics and Science Elementary Curriculum

Cybersecurity is becoming an increased concern among young technology users. However, elementary school teachers often have limited preparation to teach students about cybersecurity. Additional challenges include teachers’ limited time and motivation to effectively incorporate cybersecurity topics into STEM lessons, limiting teachers’ ability to enhance students' knowledge and confidence and spark students’ interest and involvement in cybersecurity. This project is designed to iteratively develop, refine, and test an innovative professional development program that supports teachers to infuse cybersecurity into 4th-5th grade mathematics and science instruction. The project will synergistically merge cybersecurity with mathematics and science content in authentic, real-world contexts to teach topics such as cyberbullying, digital security, encryption/decryption, digital privacy, and digital footprint. This project seeks to enhance cybersecurity knowledge for elementary students across urban, suburban, and rural districts in North Carolina which can be extended to and tested in other states. The project will leverage interdisciplinary curriculum design to transform traditional approaches to mathematics, science, and cybersecurity instruction while providing research experiences for graduate and undergraduate students in mathematics and science education and educational technology.

A multidisciplinary research team of mathematics and science education, cybersecurity, educational technology, motivation, and design thinking experts will develop a design-thinking-informed framework and professional development to support teachers’ integration of cybersecurity into mathematics and science lessons. The project team will implement the framework and professional development with 15 4th and 5th grade teachers to collaboratively develop and test exemplar cybersecurity-infused mathematics and science scenarios, studying teachers’ knowledge and self-efficacy in parallel via a mixed-methods use study. The project will conduct an experimental study to scale the approach with 60 additional 4th and 5th grade teachers (30 teachers in the experimental group and 30 teachers in the control group) and their students to measure the impacts of the program on teachers’ cybersecurity knowledge and self-efficacy as well as students’ cybersecurity knowledge. Data collection methods and measures will include focus groups, cognitive interviews, semi-structured interviews, teacher self-efficacy and cybersecurity teacher knowledge and interest, teacher classroom observation, and student cybersecurity knowledge assessment. Data analysis will involve qualitative methods such as the grounded theory approach and thematic analysis, and quantitative methods including descriptive analysis, regression analysis, and multilevel modeling. The project team will consolidate the project outcomes and create a web-based repository along with a teacher-to-teacher and teacher-to-researcher communication platform to disseminate instructional resources and findings free of charge.