Promoting Professional Behaviors among Students in Undergraduate Computing Courses

本计划旨在促进大学生计算机专业行为的发展，以服务于国家利益。传统的计算机教育传授知识和技能，然而，专业行为，如坚持、自我指导和适应性，对于专业计算劳动力的成功至关重要。雇主调查显示，职业行为或性格与学生在学术课程中获得的知识和技能一样，对工作场所的成功至关重要。虽然在知识获取和技能发展方面存在着众所周知的循证教学和学习方法，但在计算机教育中尚无类似的方法来培养专业素质。在这个项目中，四所院校的教师计划合作研究如何在计算机专业的本科生中推广这些行为，方法是让学生解释他们如何在课程中应用这些行为，以及其他人如何在现实生活中使用这些行为。这个项目的目标是开发、实施和研究反思练习和小片段的使用，以培养本科计算机学生的十种专业倾向。项目团队将以以往研究的经验和结果为基础：(1)开发和使用小插图；(2)针对细心、创新和责任心等五种附加性格；(3)将学习时间延长至四个学期；(4)纳入持续的改进周期；(5)获得更大的数据集，研究性格如何影响计算中未被充分代表的群体。小品的使用将在多种情况下进行评估：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准实验研究设计。在这个为期两年的项目的每个学期，调查前、调查后、反思练习和小短片将在网上进行。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个小短片，以及设计和使用反思练习和小短片的指导方针。NSF IUSE: EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.