Integrating computer programming into the standard school curriculum has become an emerging trend around the world. In addition to the difficulties of implementing a new learning approach, teacher professional development for programming education often leaves out the potential of programming as a tool for creative learning. To address this issue, the researchers developed a teacher professional-development program targeting elementary and middle school teachers, focusing on the role of programming to support creative learning in schools. This 4-month-long, blended (i.e., in-person and online) program focused particularly on providing teachers with means to engage in creative programming themselves, reflect on the process, design and try out a lesson idea, and iterate on the lesson idea. This paper reports on the shifts in the teachers’ understanding of programming education and challenges that emerged through this professional-development experience. The most compelling shift we observed was how teachers started to see programming education as an opportunity to teach their students how to learn. The paper also shares a few lessons learned from this study as recommendations for practitioners.
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