Advancing the Computational Thinking of Undergraduate Students in Intermediate Computer Science Courses

在中级计算机科学课程中促进本科生的计算思维

• 批准号: 2044179
• 负责人: Adrienne Decker
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Buffalo
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-06-01 至 2024-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2044179&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Advancing; Computational; Thinking; Undergraduate; Students

This project aims to serve the national interest by defining critical concepts students must understand to become computational thinkers and by identifying misconceptions that stand in the way of learning these concepts. In today’s data- and computing-driven society, people need computational thinking abilities to be successful, contributing members of society. The ability to think computationally is as fundamentally important as basic fluency in reading, writing, and arithmetic. A well-known and troubling problem is the low retention of students in computing courses and programs, where computational thinking is typically taught. Although considerable work has been done to identify critical concepts and improve student performance in introductory computing courses, little work has been done in intermediate courses. This project seeks to understand the conceptual barriers that students face while learning basic computational skills in their second and third year of study. This understanding may lead to new approaches to improve teaching and learning of computational thinking. The results of this project have important implications for building and maintaining a skilled national workforce, especially in fields that are highly focused on computation.This project will study computational thinking through the lens of threshold concepts and threshold capability frameworks. Students often struggle to learn threshold concepts because these concepts require learners to shift their thinking in new and often counter-intuitive ways. Object-oriented programming is an example of a threshold concept. Once learned, threshold concepts are transformational because they enable learning of more advanced concepts and build the learners’ professional identities in computing. By identifying threshold concepts in intermediate computer science, the project aims to help students navigate more successfully through the conceptual work needed to develop computational thinking capabilities. This project will integrate issues of threshold concepts, liminality, and transformative learning to produce a framework through which computational thinking can be probed and students’ progression can be better assessed. Computational thinking is, itself, a threshold capability that lays the groundwork for professional success in STEM and non-STEM careers. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目旨在通过定义学生必须理解成为计算思想家的关键概念，并通过确定以学习这些概念的方式来识别误解，以服务于国家利益。在当今的数据和计算驱动的社会中，人们需要计算思维能力才能取得成功，并为社会的成员贡献。在计算上思考的能力与阅读，写作和算术中的基本流利性一样重要。一个众所周知的令人不安的问题是学生在计算课程和计划中的保留率很低，在计算课程和课程中，通常会教授计算思维。尽管已经完成了大量工作来确定关键概念并在引言计算课程中提高学生的绩效，但中级课程的工作很少。该项目旨在了解学生在学习的第二年和第三年学习基本计算技能时面临的概念障碍。这种理解可能会导致改善计算思维的教学和学习的新方法。该项目的结果对建立和维护熟练的国家劳动力具有重要意义，尤其是在高度专注于计算的领域中。该项目将通过阈值概念和阈值功能框架来研究计算思维。学生经常努力学习阈值概念，因为这些概念要求学习者以新的且经常违反直觉的方式转移思想。面向对象的编程是阈值概念的一个示例。一旦学习过，阈值概念就会具有变革性，因为它们能够学习更高级的概念并在计算中建立学习者的专业身份。通过确定中级计算机科学中的阈值概念，该项目旨在帮助学生通过开发计算思维功能所需的概念工作更成功地导航。该项目将整合阈值概念，限制性和变革性学习的问题，以产生一个框架，可以通过该框架进行探测，并且可以更好地评估学生的进步。计算思维本身就是一个阈值能力，为STEM和非茎职业的专业成功奠定了基础。 NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习轨道，该计划支持了承诺实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估审查标准，被认为是珍贵的支持。