Promoting Professional Behaviors among Students in Undergraduate Computing Courses

该项目旨在通过促进本科计算机课程学生的职业行为发展来服务于国家利益。传统的计算机教育传授知识和技能，然而，坚持不懈、自我导向和适应能力等专业行为对于专业计算劳动力的成功是必不可少的。雇主调查显示，职业行为或性格对职场成功的重要性，与学生在学业上发展的知识和技能一样重要。虽然已有著名的循证教学和学习方法用于知识获取和技能发展，但还没有开发出类似的方法来培养计算机教育中的专业倾向。在这个项目中，四个机构的教职员工计划合作研究如何在本科生计算学生中推广这些行为，通过练习让学生解释他们是如何在课程中应用这些行为的，以及其他人是如何在现实生活中使用这些行为的。这个项目的目标是开发、实施和研究反思练习和小插曲的使用，以培养本科生的十种专业倾向。该项目团队将在之前一项研究的经验和结果的基础上：(1)开发和使用小插曲；(2)针对另外五种性格，如细致性、创造性和责任感；(3)将研究延长四个学期；(4)纳入持续的改进周期；以及(5)获得更大的数据集，研究性格如何影响在计算中代表不足的群体。将在多种背景下对小插曲的使用情况进行评估：公共和私人机构，以及文科和专业研究。本研究将采用混合方法的准实验研究设计。在这个为期两年的项目的每个学期中，将在网上进行预调查、后调查、反思练习和小插曲。该小组将通过同行评审的场所，在计算机教育工作者和研究人员中传播评估结果、反思练习、一套50个小插曲，以及设计和使用反思练习和小插曲的指导方针。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 promoting the development of professional behaviors among students in undergraduate computing courses. Traditional computing education imparts knowledge and skills, however professional behaviors such as persistence, self-directedness, and adaptability, are essential for success in the professional computing workforce. Employer surveys reveal that professional behaviors, or dispositions, are as important for success in the workplace as the knowledge and skills students develop in their academic programs of study. Although well-known evidence-based teaching and learning approaches for knowledge acquisition and skill development exist, no similar approaches have been developed to foster professional dispositions in computing education. In this project, faculty at four institutions plan to collaboratively study how to promote these behaviors among undergraduate computing students using exercises that ask students to explain how they have applied these behaviors in their coursework and how others have used these behaviors in real-life scenarios. The goal of this project is to develop, implement, and study the use of reflection exercises and vignettes to foster ten professional dispositions among undergraduate computing students. The project team will build on its experiences and results from a previous study by: (1) developing and using vignettes; (2) targeting five additional dispositions such as meticulousness, inventiveness, and responsibility; (3) extending the study over four semesters; (4) incorporating a continuous cycle of improvement; and (5) given access to a larger data set, studying how dispositions affect groups underrepresented in computing. The use of vignettes will be evaluated in multiple contexts: public and private institutions, as well as liberal arts and professional studies. The study will use a mixed-methods quasi-experimental research design. During each semester of this two-year project, pre-survey, post-survey, reflection exercises, and vignettes will be administered online. The team will disseminate the evaluation results, reflection exercises, a suite of fifty vignettes, and guidelines for designing and using reflection exercises and vignettes among computing educators and researchers through peer-reviewed venues. 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.