Broadening Participation in Introductory Computer Science: Investigating Self-Assessment Practices for Increasing Student Learning and Self-Efficacy in Two Institutional Contexts

扩大计算机科学入门的参与：研究两种制度背景下提高学生学习和自我效能的自我评估实践

• 批准号: 2215245
• 负责人: Alex Lishinski
• 金额: $ 29.98万
• 依托单位: University of Tennessee Knoxville
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2215245&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Broadening; Participation; Introductory; Computer; Science

This project aims to serve the national interest by generating new knowledge of how to support students’ self-efficacy in computer science and provide practical pedagogical strategies that instructors can implement to address equity in computer science education. In computer science education, students must develop problem-solving skills that include the ability to apply core computing concepts alongside more general skills like problem decomposition and abstraction. However, an often-overlooked aspect of the learning process in computer science is the development and use of metacognitive skills, the practices of self-monitoring and reflection that learners must use to be successful. This project intends to study the effectiveness of an intervention designed to scaffold the development of computer science students’ meta-cognitive skills through directed practice with self-assessment. This approach has shown promise in prior education research but has not been adapted to the computing context. The significance of this project is that it has the potential to provide new robust evidence for improved pedagogical strategies that will benefit students in computer science concerning both their learning and motivational outcomes. This benefits both success in the introductory classes being studied as well as persistence in future courses. Furthermore, this has the potential to contribute to the mission of broadening participation in computing by supporting students from underrepresented groups in computing to have good experiences in introductory courses and beyond.This project aims to leverage prior research in educational psychology to develop an intervention to support students’ development of self-assessment skills. In addition, this project seeks to conduct an experimental evaluation of the effectiveness of the intervention, looking at both students’ learning outcomes and motivational outcomes in introductory computer science classes. The development and testing of the intervention will take place with around 1,000 students at two different types of institutions, a large public university, and a large community college. This setting should allow the project to assess the impact of the intervention across a variety of introductory computer science courses and student populations to increase the generalizability of the findings. In the context of a field experiment design, the development of the intervention seeks to involve the collection of extensive feedback on the usability and suitability of the intervention from both instructors and students with a specific focus on students’ experiences from underrepresented groups in computing. By improving students’ self-assessment skills, this project has the potential to give computer science instructors a new set of practices that they can use to help their students’ learning and motivation outcomes and advance the goal of broadening participation in computing. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目旨在通过为如何支持学生在计算机科学领域的自我效能而产生新知识，并提供实用的教学策略来满足国家利益，并提供教师可以实施以解决计算机科学教育中的公平性的实用教学策略。在计算机科学教育中，学生必须发展解决问题的技能，包括应用核心计算概念以及更一般的问题，例如问题分解和抽象的能力。但是，计算机科学学习过程中经常被忽视的方面是元认知技能的发展和使用，学习者必须使用的自我监控和反思的实践。该项目旨在研究一种干预措施的有效性，旨在通过自我评估的定向练习来开发计算机科学学生的元认知技能。这种方法在先前的教育研究中表明了希望，但尚未适应计算环境。该项目的意义在于，它有可能为改进的教学策略提供新的强大证据，从而使计算机科学中的学生在学习和动机成果方面受益。这两个在研究课程中都有益于所研究的简介课程以及未来课程的持久性。此外，这有可能通过支持代表性不足的群体的学生在介绍课程及其他方面具有良好的经验来促进扩大计算的使命。该项目旨在利用教育心理学的先前研究来开发干预措施，以开发一项干预措施，以支持学生的发展能力。此外，该项目旨在对干预措施的有效性进行实验评估，研究学生在引言计算机科学课程中的学习成果和动机成果。干预措施的发展和测试将与大约1,000名不同类型的机构，一所大公立大学和一所大型社区学院的学生进行。该设置应允许项目评估干预措施在各种简介的计算机科学课程和学生群体中的影响，以提高发现结果的普遍性。在现场实验设计的背景下，干预措施的发展旨在涉及收集有关教师和学生对干预措施的可用性和适用性的广泛反馈，并特别关注计算中代表性不足小组的学生的经历。通过提高学生的自我评估技能，该项目有可能为计算机科学讲师提供一套新的实践，可以用来帮助学生的学习和动机成果，并促进扩大计算参与的目标。 NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习轨道，该计划支持了承诺实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估审查标准，被认为是珍贵的支持。