Subgoals, Problem Solving Phases, and Sources of Knowledge: A Complex Mangle

Educational researchers have increasingly drawn attention to how students develop computational thinking (CT) skills, including in science, math, and literacy contexts. A key component of CT is the process of abstraction, a particularly challenging concept for novice programmers, but one vital to problem solving. We propose a framework based on situated cognition that can be used to document how instructors and students communicate about abstractions during the problem solving process. We develop this framework in a multimodal interaction analysis of a 32-minute long excerpt of a middle school student working in the PixelBots JavaScript programming environment at a two-week summer programming workshop taught by undergraduate CS majors. Through a microgenetic analysis of the process of teaching and learning about abstraction in this excerpt, we document the extemporaneous prioritization of subgoals and the back-and-forth coordination of problem solving phases. In our case study, we identify that (a) problem solving phases are nested with several instances of context-switching within a single phase; (b) the introduction of new ideas and information create bridges or opportunities to move between different problem solving phases; (c) planning to solve a problem is a non-linear process; and (d) pedagogical moves such as modeling and prompting highlight situated resources and advance problem solving. Future research should address how to help students structure subgoals and reflect on connections between problem solving phases, and how to help instructors reflect on their routes to supporting students in the problem solving process.Comment: ACM Student Research Competition (SRC) submission in Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '19); 3 pages; Poster: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1OrfWGp7-o8sI7KJyx4-leY-A8TioXP1IQFKNBDceht4/edit?usp=sharin

Utilising pair programming to enhance the performance of slow-paced students on introductory programming

Due to its high failure rate, Introductory Programming has become a main concern. One of the main issues is the incapability of slow-paced students to cope up with given programming materials. This paper proposes a learning technique which utilises pair programming to help slow-paced students on Introductory Programming; each slow-paced student is paired with a fast-paced student and the latter is encouraged to teach the former as a part of grading system. An evaluation regarding that technique has been conducted on three undergraduate classes from an Indonesian university for the second semester of 2018. According to the evaluation, the use of pair programming may help both slow-paced and fast-paced students. Nevertheless, it may not significantly affect individual academic performancePeer Reviewe

Need Finding for an Embodied Coding Platform: Educators’ Practices and Perspectives

Eight middle- and high-school Computer Science (CS) teachers in San Diego County were interviewed about the major challenges their students commonly encounter in learning computer programming. We identified strategic design opportunities -- that is, challenges and needs that can be addressed in innovative ways through the affordances of Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR). Thematic Analysis of the interviews yielded six thematic clusters: Tools for Learning, Visualization and Representation, Pedagogical Approaches, Classroom Culture, Motivation, and Community Connections. Within the theme of visualization, focal clusters centered on visualizing problem spaces and using metaphors to explain computational concepts, indicating that an AR/VR coding system could help users to represent computational problems by allowing them to build from existing embodied experiences and knowledge. Additionally, codes clustered within the theme of learning tools reflected educators’ preference for web-based IDEs, which involve minimal start-up costs, as well as concern over the degree of transfer in learning between block- and text-based interfaces. Finally, themes related to motivation, community, and pedagogical practices indicated that the design of an AR coding platform should support collaboration, self-expression, and autonomy in learning. It should also foster selfefficacy and learners’ ability to address lived experience and real-world problems through computational means

Discourse annotation - Towards a dialogue system for pair programming

Le développement de systèmes de dialogue a fait l’objet d’une grande attention dans différents domaines. Avec les progrès récents des tâches de traitement du langage de programmation, les systèmes de dialogue destinés aux programmeurs deviennent un autre domaine d’application viable. Cependant, afin de développer un système de dialogue pour assister les programmeurs, il est nécessaire de traiter non seulement le code, mais aussi le langage naturel associé. Comment ces données doivent-elles être annotées ? Dans cet article, nous présentons une synthèse des méthodes les plus courantes d’annotation des dialogues, avec un accent particulier sur le domaine de la programmation. On considère d’abord les théories sur lesquelles ces méthodes sont basées, on énumère les principales méthodes et on analyse les particularités du domaine de la programmation et dans quelle mesure les principales méthodes d’annotation sont adaptées à ce domaine. Much work has been carried out on dialogue system development in different fields. With recent advances in Programming Language Processing tasks, dialogue systems aimed at programmers are becoming another viable area of application. However, the data necessary for a dialogue system that can assist programmers involves not only code, but the natural language around it. How should this data be annotated? In this review we examine the most common approaches to dialogue annotation, paying special attention to programming settings. We first look at the broader theories that inform these approaches, and after our review of the most widely used annotation schemes we analyze the peculiarities of the programming context and how well suited the existing schemes are for this setting

Equity, accessibility and action: supporting diverse learners in K-12 computer science education

Computer science impacts our lives every day in a multitude of ways. Despite its ubiquity and power to shape the world, the computer science education community continues to struggle with issues of equity. Problems of access, opportunity, influence and achievement are pervasive and while a handful of scholars have investigated specific approaches to improving equity in computer science education, little research has been done to study the beliefs and practices of teachers in the field across all grade levels and from varied locales. Using a basic qualitative approach, this study examined how 10 teachers selected for an equity-oriented fellowship conceptualized equity in computer science education and used a wide assortment of strategies to create equitable access and outcomes for diverse learners both within and beyond their classrooms. To achieve a deeper understanding, fellowship data was analyzed and compared across all fellows and multiple data types for similarities and differences. Implications for research, and practice are discussed

Enhancing Free-text Interactions in a Communication Skills Learning Environment

Learning environments frequently use gamification to enhance user interactions.Virtual characters with whom players engage in simulated conversations often employ prescripted dialogues; however, free user inputs enable deeper immersion and higher-order cognition. In our learning environment, experts developed a scripted scenario as a sequence of potential actions, and we explore possibilities for enhancing interactions by enabling users to type free inputs that are matched to the pre-scripted statements using Natural Language Processing techniques. In this paper, we introduce a clustering mechanism that provides recommendations for fine-tuning the pre-scripted answers in order to better match user inputs

The student-produced electronic portfolio in craft education

The authors studied primary school students’ experiences of using an electronic portfolio in their craft education over four years. A stimulated recall interview was applied to collect user experiences and qualitative content analysis to analyse the collected data. The results indicate that the electronic portfolio was experienced as a multipurpose tool to support learning. It makes the learning process visible and in that way helps focus on and improves the quality of learning. © ISLS.Peer reviewe