Broadening Participation in Introductory Computer Science: Investigating Self-Assessment Practices for Increasing Student Learning and Self-Efficacy in Two Institutional Contexts

该项目旨在通过产生关于如何支持学生在计算机科学中的自我效能的新知识来服务于国家利益，并提供实用的教学策略，教师可以实施这些策略来解决计算机科学教育中的公平问题。在计算机科学教育中，学生必须培养解决问题的技能，包括应用核心计算概念的能力，以及更一般的技能，如问题分解和抽象。然而，在计算机科学的学习过程中，一个经常被忽视的方面是元认知技能的发展和使用，即学习者必须使用的自我监控和反思的实践。本项目旨在研究一种干预措施的有效性，该干预措施旨在通过指导实践和自我评估来促进计算机科学专业学生元认知技能的发展。这种方法在先前的教育研究中显示出了希望，但尚未适应计算环境。这个项目的意义在于，它有可能为改进的教学策略提供新的强有力的证据，这些策略将使计算机科学专业的学生在学习和动机结果方面受益。这既有利于正在学习的入门课程的成功，也有利于在未来的课程中坚持不懈。此外，这可能有助于通过支持来自计算机代表不足的群体的学生在入门课程和其他课程中获得良好的经验，从而扩大对计算机的参与。该项目旨在利用教育心理学的先前研究，开发一种干预措施，以支持学生自我评估技能的发展。此外，这个项目试图对干预的有效性进行实验评估，观察学生在计算机科学入门课上的学习结果和动机结果。这项干预措施的开发和测试将在两种不同类型的机构-一所大型公立大学和一所大型社区学院-的约1000名学生中进行。这种设置应该允许项目评估干预措施对各种计算机科学入门课程和学生群体的影响，以增加研究结果的概括性。在现场实验设计的背景下，干预措施的开发试图从教师和学生那里收集关于干预措施的可用性和适宜性的广泛反馈，并特别关注学生在计算领域中代表性不足的群体的经验。通过提高学生的自我评估技能，该项目有可能为计算机科学教师提供一套新的实践，他们可以用来帮助他们的学生的学习和动机结果，并推进扩大参与计算的目标。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by generating new knowledge of how to support students’ self-efficacy in computer science and provide practical pedagogical strategies that instructors can implement to address equity in computer science education. In computer science education, students must develop problem-solving skills that include the ability to apply core computing concepts alongside more general skills like problem decomposition and abstraction. However, an often-overlooked aspect of the learning process in computer science is the development and use of metacognitive skills, the practices of self-monitoring and reflection that learners must use to be successful. This project intends to study the effectiveness of an intervention designed to scaffold the development of computer science students’ meta-cognitive skills through directed practice with self-assessment. This approach has shown promise in prior education research but has not been adapted to the computing context. The significance of this project is that it has the potential to provide new robust evidence for improved pedagogical strategies that will benefit students in computer science concerning both their learning and motivational outcomes. This benefits both success in the introductory classes being studied as well as persistence in future courses. Furthermore, this has the potential to contribute to the mission of broadening participation in computing by supporting students from underrepresented groups in computing to have good experiences in introductory courses and beyond.This project aims to leverage prior research in educational psychology to develop an intervention to support students’ development of self-assessment skills. In addition, this project seeks to conduct an experimental evaluation of the effectiveness of the intervention, looking at both students’ learning outcomes and motivational outcomes in introductory computer science classes. The development and testing of the intervention will take place with around 1,000 students at two different types of institutions, a large public university, and a large community college. This setting should allow the project to assess the impact of the intervention across a variety of introductory computer science courses and student populations to increase the generalizability of the findings. In the context of a field experiment design, the development of the intervention seeks to involve the collection of extensive feedback on the usability and suitability of the intervention from both instructors and students with a specific focus on students’ experiences from underrepresented groups in computing. By improving students’ self-assessment skills, this project has the potential to give computer science instructors a new set of practices that they can use to help their students’ learning and motivation outcomes and advance the goal of broadening participation in computing. 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.