The impact of STEM experiences on student self-efficacy in computational thinking

Citation: Weese, J. L., Feldhausen, R., & Bean, N. H. (2016). The impact of STEM experiences on student self-efficacy in computational thinking.Since the introduction of new curriculum standards at K-12 schools, computational thinking has become a major research area. Creating and delivering content to enhance these skills, as well as evaluation, remain open problems. This paper describes two different interventions based on the Scratch programming language which aim to improve student self-efficacy in computer science and computational thinking. The two interventions were applied at a STEM outreach program for 5th-9th grade students. Previous experience in STEM related activities and subjects, as well as student self-efficacy, were collected using a developed pre- and post-survey. We discuss the impact of our intervention on student performance and confidence, and evaluate the validity of our instrument. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2016

Content Development Strategies in Physical Education: An Exploratory Investigation of Student Practice, Cognition, and Achievement.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the manner in which content development strategies function in physical education instruction. The relative effects of three content development conditions on mediational variables and achievement of students varying in entry ability were compared. College students enrolled in four sections of tennis were assigned to one of three content development conditions: part training, simplification, and criterion. Four instructors taught three small groups of students, one using each content development strategy. Instructors followed detailed lesson plans standardized according to time allowed for serving practice, task presentation, provision of feedback, and task elements emphasized during teacher-student interactions. All groups received instruction and practiced the serve for five days. Subjects assigned to the criterion condition practiced the criterion task, serving from behind the baseline, while the part training and simplification groups experienced a series of tasks of increasing difficulty. The part training task series was a backward chaining approach which began with the final segment of the serving motion, and sequentially adding adjacent movement segments. Subjects assigned to simplification practiced the whole serving motion, but began practicing close to the net and systematically moved toward the baseline, a manipulation of goal difficulty. Dependent measures were percent of successful and appropriate practice trials, ratings of self-efficacy, motivation, and success collected via questionnaire, skill test scares, performance during match play, and teachers\u27 and students\u27 perceptions of the effectiveness of conditions. The results indicated that both part training and simplification enhanced the quality of practice, self-efficacy, and motivation, mediational variables hypothesized as mechanisms underlying the benefits of progressions. Students assigned to the simplification condition also had higher post-test scores and performed better during match play. These quantitative data combined with students\u27 and teachers\u27 perceptions support the notion that part training and simplification, two conceptually different progressive strategies, operate through differing mechanisms and affect skill acquisition in ways related to the types of cognitions and learning strategies which they promote

Visual and Textual Programming Languages: A Systematic Review of the Literature

It is well documented, and has been the topic of much research, that Computer Science courses tend to have higher than average drop out rates at third level. This is a problem that needs to be addressed with urgency but also caution. The required number of Computer Science graduates is growing every year but the number of graduates is not meeting this demand and one way that this problem can be alleviated is to encourage students at an early age towards studying Computer Science courses. This paper presents a systematic literature review on the role of visual and textual programming languages when learning to program, particularly as a first programming language. The approach is systematic, in that a structured search of electronic resources has been conducted, and the results are presented and quantitatively analysed. This study will give insight into whether or not the current approaches to teaching young learners programming are viable, and examines what we can do to increase the interest and retention of these students as they progress through their education.Comment: 18 pages (including 2 bibliography pages), 3 figure

Micro-Teaching

This research topic explores the use of micro-teaching curriculum to increase content mastery of mathematical topics that pertain to the California state assessment. The participants for the Capstone project include 28 fourth-grade students in a public elementary school located within California’s Silicon Valley. The project consists of in-class teaching using micro-lesson plans that focus on re-teaching subjects that are relevant to the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress testing. The project uses 2 tests given at the beginning and the end of a 2-week teaching period to show visual correlations between the curriculum and student’s content mastery. In the final project findings, the student’s appeared to comprehend course curriculum to a higher degree, which is shown through graphed data sets. In the future, this project could become informative in the creation of future content used to help students catch-up and keep-up with California’s state testing standards

Creativity and Songwriting

This study tested a number of theories of creativity in an experiment where a song was written and recorded every day for over 170 days using various techniques and ideas. 15 have been reworked, finalised, and released on an audio CD, attached as Appendix 1. The finished CD contains material from a number of styles and is intended to showcase the gradual progression of the songwriting process and the change in style over time, and explores the question of whether songwriting and creativity in general can be improved through regular practice. It also demonstrates a wide array of skill and fluency in songwriting and creativity gained from a large amount of practice, whilst also exhibiting examples of the material that was written in the daily songwriting practice routine. The audio CD (Appendix 1) is accompanied by a data CD containing 100 recorded demos of songs written over the course of the experiment (Appendix 2) and a thesis explaining the creative process behind selected tracks, complete with a literature review of research into the current understanding of creativity. This is explored from both a psychological viewpoint and a more subjective viewpoint, relating specifically to songwriting. The thesis also attempts to find common ground between psychological practices aimed at improving general creativity, and more specific songwriting techniques, intended to explore how songwriters can produce a higher quality or quantity of work. It addresses such issues as writer’s block, songwriting as a routine, and also the relationship between the number of songs written and the quality of those songs, whilst also autoethnographically detailing the writing process of the songs written over the 170 day period, and the experience of the artist of the effects of the practice routine. The project aimed to determine whether creativity could be improved by following a regimented practice routine over the course of a set period of time (in this case, roughly half a year). Both quantitative and qualitative data have been collected from this experiment and analysed from an autoethnographical perspective, and it has been determined that in this case, the artist’s perceived skill in songwriting has grown due to the amount of time specifically dedicated to it, the regular practice enabling a larger volume of higher quality work to be produced. Secondary research also showed that creativity in general was improved from the exercise, and that this enhanced creativity can be applied more generally than simply to songwriting