Informal Learning in Computer Science: Social and Conceptual Factors Related to Women's Persistence

计算机科学中的非正式学习：与女性坚持相关的社会和概念因素

• 批准号: 1612527
• 负责人: Louise Lyon
• 金额: $ 29.66万
• 依托单位: ETR Associates
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-15 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1612527&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Informal; Learning; Computer; Science; Social

This study addresses two problems: the difficulty of using informal resources to learn to write computer code for job and career advancement and the lack of women in computer science (CS). The work will make a contribution to the literature on informal learning in the workplace through an in-depth investigation into the specific field of CS. It will focus on the specific task of using informal resources to learn to code and explore ways to improve those resources so learners can more effectively teach themselves to code. As Exploratory Pathways project, it will provide the pilot of a protocol investigating the contexts of informal CS learning by career women. It is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports work that provides multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.Little is understood about this phenomenon of how women in the workforce learn CS skills that enable them to rewrite their career paths. This project will take an ethnographic approach to studying the informal learning (both through online, written resources and through sharing of knowledge with others) of women involved in a grassroots, informal, volunteer group that has formed in order to help women help themselves and others learn to write computer code. The women's coding group will be made up of experienced administrators on the phenomenally successful Salesforce Customer Relationship Management software platform who are moving from end users of the software to end user programmers that extend the software by writing computer code to customize applications for particular business needs. This study aims to answer the overarching research question: In what ways are informal CS learning opportunities being used and created by adult women, what are their experiences with those opportunities, and how does this suggest ways to enhance those opportunities in the future to increase effectiveness in broadening access to and engagement in informal CS learning experiences for women? Specifically, the study will focus on personal context (e.g. what the learner brings to the learning situation), sociocultural context (e.g. interactions with others when learning to code), and physical context (e.g. the resources used and the virtual learning sessions) as well as how persistence and identity develop over time as the women are influenced by the contexts.The research is a collaboration between CS education and learning researchers, informal practitioners, and training practitioners who create resources to help end-users to learn to code. The work will complement learning sciences research on STEM learning by providing some depth to what is known about informal learning in the STEM field of CS and by focusing on an understudied adult population. This study will make contributions to the literature on females learning STEM in informal environments by focusing on adult women in the workplace and the sociocultural barriers to their learning of CS, which is an area of sparse research.

这项研究解决了两个问题：使用非正式资源学习编写计算机代码以促进工作和职业发展的困难，以及计算机科学(CS)领域缺乏女性。这项工作将通过对CS具体领域的深入调查，为工作场所的非正式学习文献做出贡献。它将侧重于使用非正式资源学习编程的具体任务，并探索改进这些资源的方法，以便学习者能够更有效地自学编程。作为探索性途径项目，它将提供一项调查职业女性非正式CS学习背景的议定书的试点。它由推进非正式STEM学习(AISL)计划资助，该计划支持提供多种途径的工作，以扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验的途径，推进对非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，并加深参与者对更深层次学习的理解。关于劳动力中的女性如何学习CS技能使她们能够重写职业道路，人们对这一现象知之甚少。该项目将采用人种学的方法来研究参与一个基层非正式志愿者小组的妇女的非正式学习(通过在线书面资源和与他人分享知识)，该小组的目的是帮助妇女帮助自己和其他人学习编写计算机代码。妇女编码小组将由非常成功的Salesforce Customer Relationship Management软件平台上的经验丰富的管理员组成，他们正在从软件的最终用户转变为最终用户程序员，他们通过编写计算机代码来扩展软件，以满足特定业务需求的定制应用程序。这项研究旨在回答一个重要的研究问题：成年女性以哪些方式利用和创造非正式的CS学习机会，她们对这些机会有什么经验，以及这如何建议在未来增加这些机会，以增加妇女获得和参与非正式CS学习经验的有效性？具体而言，本研究将集中于个人情境(例如，学习者在学习情境中带来了什么)、社会文化情境(例如，在学习编程时与他人的互动)、物理情境(例如，所使用的资源和虚拟学习会话)以及女性如何随着时间的推移发展持久性和认同感。该研究是CS教育和学习研究者、非正式从业者和培训从业者之间的合作，他们创建资源来帮助最终用户学习编程。这项工作将补充关于STEM学习的学习科学研究，提供一些关于CS领域中非正式学习的已知深度，并侧重于研究不足的成年人口。这项研究将对女性在非正式环境中学习STEM的文献做出贡献，重点关注工作场所的成年女性以及她们学习CS的社会文化障碍，这是一个研究较少的领域。