Collaborative Research: Spatial Skills and Success in Introductory Computing

先前的研究已经发现，在几个工程学科中，低空间能力是失败的预测因素。此外，有证据表明，来自工程和计算机科学专业代表性不足群体的一些学生(例如，女性、非裔美国人和西班牙裔美国人)表现出统计上较低的空间能力，但空间能力较低可以提高。经过干预以提高空间能力的工科学生在本科工程项目中取得了大量成功。虽然工程学和计算机科学是STEM学科，通常被认为是相关的，但空间能力是否也是学生在计算机科学课程中取得成功的一个因素仍不清楚。这个项目将探索空间能力是否是大学一年级计算机课程成功的预测因素。如果是这样的话，这个项目将研究是否可以训练空间能力较低的学生来提高他们的能力，以及他们在计算课上的表现(以及他们的记忆力)是否因此得到改善。将确定提高学生空间能力的短期和长期影响。这一合作伙伴包括内布拉斯加州大学林肯分校、德克萨斯女子大学和北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校的教职员工。确定对计算机入门课程最重要的3D空间技能组成部分，将有助于为计算机专业学生开发空间技能干预措施。研究小组将确定空间技能干预对计算学生的成绩和总体保持能力的影响。在这样做的同时，它还将探索提供空间技能培训是否也能改善女性和代表性不足的少数族裔学生的体验，从而增加他们选择参加额外计算课程的可能性。这个项目将展示一系列可以提高学生空间能力的方法。这项工作的成果可望推广到其他领域。例如，算法可视化社区中的许多研究人员在创建和使用教育工具/可视化方面取得的成功有限。如果学生的低空间能力与学生无法从特定的算法可视化中学习之间存在关联，这项工作将为该社区提供一种手段，以提高他们正在创建的工具/可视化的有效性和影响，以改善学生的学习。这一项目的成果将通过会议论文、讲习班和一个项目的网站传播，所有材料都将向公众开放。

Prior research studies have found that low spatial ability is a predictor of failure in several engineering disciplines. Furthermore, there is evidence that some students from underrepresented groups in engineering and computer science (e.g., women and African Americans and Hispanics), demonstrate statistically lower spatial abilities, but low spatial ability can be improved. Engineering students who have gone through interventions to enhance their spatial abilities have succeeded in great numbers in undergraduate engineering programs. While engineering and computer science are STEM disciplines that are often thought of as being related, it is still unknown whether spatial ability is also a factor in student success in computer science coursework. This project will explore whether spatial ability is a predictor of success in first-year college computing courses. If so, this project will study whether students with low spatial abilities can be trained to improve, and whether their performance in computing classes (and their retention) improves as a result. The short-term and long-term impacts of improving students' spatial abilities will be determined. This collaborative partnership includes faculty at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Texas Woman's University, and the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Determining the 3D spatial skills components most important to succeed in introductory computing courses will enable the development of spatial skills interventions for computing students. The research team will determine the impact of spatial skills interventions on the performance and overall retention of computing students. In doing so, it will also explore whether providing spatial skills training also improves the experience of female and underrepresented minority students, thus increasing the likelihood that they will choose to take additional computing classes. This project will demonstrate a series of approaches that can improve students' spatial abilities. It is expected that the results of this work could be applied to other domains. For instance, many researchers within the algorithm visualization community have had limited successes with the creation and use of educational tools/visualizations. If there is a correlation between a student's low-spatial ability and the student's inability to learn from a particular algorithm visualization, this work will have provided this community with a means to improve the effectiveness and the impact of the tools/visualizations they are creating to improve student learning. Results of this project will be disseminated through conferences papers, workshops, and through a project's web site where all materials will be accessible to the public.