On the domain-specificity of mindsets: The relationship between aptitude beliefs and programming practice

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2013 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.Deliberate practice is important in many areas of learning, including that of learning to program computers. However, beliefs about the nature of personal traits, known as mindsets, can have a profound impact on such practice. Previous research has shown that those with a fixed mindset believe their traits cannot change; they tend to reduce their level of practice when they encounter difficulty. In contrast, those with the growth mindset believe their traits are flexible; they tend to maintain regular practice despite the level of difficulty. However, focusing on mindset as a single construct focused on intelligence may not be appropriate in the field of computer programming. Exploring this notion, a self-belief survey was distributed to undergraduate software engineering students. It revealed that beliefs about intelligence and programming aptitude formed two distinct constructs. Furthermore, the mindset for programming aptitude had greater utility in predicting software development practice, and a follow-up survey showed that it became more fixed throughout instruction. Thus, educators should consider the role of programming-specific beliefs in the design and evaluation of introductory courses in software engineering. In particular, they need to situate and contextualize the growth messages that motivate students who experience early setbacks

Reliability in the assessment of program quality by teaching assistants during code reviews

It is of paramount importance that formative feedback is meaningful in order to drive student learning. Achieving this, however, relies upon a clear and constructively aligned model of quality being applied consistently across submissions. This poster presentation raises concerns about the inter-rater reliability of code reviews conducted by teaching assistants in the absence of such a model. Five teaching assistants each reviewed 12 purposely selected programs submitted by introductory programming students. An analysis of their reliability revealed that while teaching assistants were self-consistent, they each assessed code quality in different ways. This suggests a need for standard models of program quality and rubrics, alongside supporting technology, to be used during code reviews to improve the reliability of formative feedback

Splittings and C-complexes

The intersection pattern of the translates of the limit set of a quasi-convex subgroup of a hyperbolic group can be coded in a natural incidence graph, which suggests connections with the splittings of the ambient group. A similar incidence graph exists for any subgroup of a group. We show that the disconnectedness of this graph for codimension one subgroups leads to splittings. We also reprove some results of Peter Kropholler on splittings of groups over malnormal subgroups and variants of them.Comment: v2 final version incorporating referee's comment

Assessing the role of conceptual knowledge in an anti-phishing game

Copyright @ 2014 IEEE. This is the author accepted version of this article.Games can be used to support learning and confidence development in several domains, including the secure use of computers. However, emphasizing different types of knowledge in a game design can lead to different outcomes. This study explores two game designs that aim to enhance students' ability to identify phishing hyperlinks. One design focuses on procedural knowledge: developing students' tacit ability to recognize phishing hyperlinks through systematic practice. The other design focuses on conceptual knowledge: helping students to explicitly reflect upon and identify the features of phishing hyperlinks. The results of a double-blind randomized trial with 66 participants suggests that using a game designed for conceptual knowledge leads to a greater increase in learners' ability to identify phishing hyperlinks. Hence, incorporating conceptual knowledge development into educational games enhances their efficacy within the computer security context

On Discreteness of Commensurators

We begin by showing that commensurators of Zariski dense subgroups of isometry groups of symmetric spaces of non-compact type are discrete provided that the limit set on the Furstenberg boundary is not invariant under the action of a (virtual) simple factor. In particular for rank one or simple Lie groups, Zariski dense subgroups with non-empty domain of discontinuity have discrete commensurators. This generalizes a Theorem of Greenberg for Kleinian groups. We then prove that for all finitely generated, Zariski dense, infinite covolume discrete subgroups of $Isom ({\mathbb{H}}^3)$, commensurators are discrete. Together these prove discreteness of commensurators for all known examples of finitely generated, Zariski dense, infinite covolume discrete subgroups of $Isom(X)$ for $X$ a symmetric space of non-compact type.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur

Globalization trends and regional development - dynamics of FDI and human capital flows

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in [European Journal of Development Research]. The definitive publisher-authenticated version [European Journal of Development Research 26, 160-161 (January 2014)] is available online at: http://www.palgravejournals.com/ejdr/journal/v26/n1/full/ejdr201354a.htmlApparently rendered irrelevant by globalization, regions have been rediscovered as a force in economic and social development by both scholars and policymakers. Localized inter-personal ties and networks are seen as important resources (Woolcock and Narayan, 2000), and the local supply of entrepreneurs has emerged as a key determinant of future economic growth (Chatterji et al, 2013)

Enhancing Practice and Achievement in Introductory Programming With a Robot Olympics

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Splittings and C- complexes

The intersection pattern of the translates of the limit set of a quasiconvex subgroup of a hyperbolic group can be coded in a natural incidence graph, which suggests connections with the splittings of the ambient group. A similar incidence graph exists for any subgroup of a group. We show that the disconnectedness of this graph for codimension one subgroups leads to splittings. We also reprove some results of Peter Kropholler on splittings of groups over malnormal subgroups and variants of them