Collaborative Research: Spatial Skills and Success in Introductory Computing

协作研究：空间技能和入门计算的成功

• 批准号: 1712331
• 负责人: Mohsen Dorodchi
• 金额: $ 4.5万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-08-15 至 2021-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1712331&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Spatial; Skills; Success

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.

先前的研究发现，低空间能力是几个工程学科失败的预测因素。此外，有证据表明，一些来自工程和计算机科学代表性不足群体的学生（例如，女性、非洲裔美国人和西班牙裔美国人），在统计上表现出较低的空间能力，但低空间能力可以改善。工程专业的学生谁经历了干预措施，以提高他们的空间能力，在本科工程项目中取得了巨大的成功。虽然工程和计算机科学是通常被认为是相关的STEM学科，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然是未知的。这个项目将探讨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低的学生来提高，以及他们在计算课上的表现（和他们的记忆力）是否因此而提高。将确定提高学生空间能力的短期和长期影响。这种合作伙伴关系包括内布拉斯加大学林肯分校、德克萨斯女子大学和北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校的教师。确定在入门计算课程中取得成功最重要的3D空间技能组件将使计算学生的空间技能干预的发展成为可能。研究小组将确定空间技能干预对计算学生的表现和整体保留的影响。在这样做的时候，它还将探讨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民族学生的经验，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。预计这项工作的结果可以应用到其他领域。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/可视化方面取得了有限的成功。如果学生的低空间能力与学生无法从特定算法可视化中学习之间存在相关性，则这项工作将为该社区提供一种方法，以提高他们正在创建的工具/可视化的有效性和影响力，以改善学生的学习。该项目的成果将通过会议文件、讲习班和项目网站传播，所有材料都将向公众开放。

项目成果

(Re)Validating Cognitive Introductory Computing Instruments

（重新）验证认知入门计算仪器

• DOI: 10.1145/3287324.3287372
• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '19
• 作者: Bockmon, Ryan;Cooper, Stephen;Gratch, Jonathan;Dorodchi, Mohsen
• 通讯作者: Dorodchi, Mohsen

Can Students' Spatial Skills Predict Their Programming Abilities?

学生的空间技能可以预测他们的编程能力吗？

• DOI: 10.1145/3341525.3387380
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: ITiCSE 2020
• 作者: Bockmon, Ryan;Cooper, Stephen;Gratch, Jonathan;Zhang, Jian;Dorodchi, Mohsen
• 通讯作者: Dorodchi, Mohsen

A CS1 Spatial Skills Intervention and the Impact on Introductory Programming Abilities

CS1 空间技能干预及其对入门编程能力的影响

• DOI: 10.1145/3328778.3366829
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: SIGCSE 2020
• 作者: Bockmon, Ryan;Cooper, Stephen;Koperski, William;Gratch, Jonathan;Sorby, Sheryl;Dorodchi, Mohsen
• 通讯作者: Dorodchi, Mohsen