Informal Learning in Computer Science: Social and Conceptual Factors Related to Women's Persistence

这项研究解决了两个问题：利用非正式资源学习编写计算机代码以获得工作和职业发展的困难，以及计算机科学（CS）领域缺乏女性。通过对CS具体领域的深入调查，本工作将对工作场所非正式学习的文献做出贡献。它将侧重于使用非正式资源来学习编程的具体任务，并探索改进这些资源的方法，以便学习者能够更有效地自学编程。作为探索性途径项目，它将提供一项协议的试点，调查职业妇女非正式计算机科学学习的背景。该项目由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划支持提供多种途径的工作，以扩大STEM学习经验的获取和参与，推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及发展参与者对深度学习的理解。对于职场女性如何学习计算机科学技能，从而改写自己的职业道路这一现象，人们知之甚少。这个项目将采用人种学的方法来研究妇女的非正式学习（通过在线、书面资源和与他人分享知识），这些妇女参与了一个基层、非正式的志愿者团体，目的是帮助妇女自助和他人学习编写计算机代码。女性编程组将由经验丰富的Salesforce客户关系管理软件平台管理员组成，她们将从软件的最终用户转变为最终用户程序员，通过编写计算机代码来为特定的业务需求定制应用程序来扩展软件。本研究旨在回答一个重要的研究问题：成年女性以何种方式利用和创造非正式的计算机科学学习机会，她们在这些机会中的经历是什么，这如何建议在未来增加这些机会，以提高扩大女性非正式计算机科学学习经验的有效性？具体而言，该研究将侧重于个人背景（例如，学习者为学习情境带来了什么）、社会文化背景（例如，学习编程时与他人的互动）和物理背景（例如，所使用的资源和虚拟学习课程），以及随着时间的推移，女性受到背景的影响，持久性和身份是如何发展的。这项研究是计算机科学教育与学习研究人员、非正式从业人员和培训从业人员之间的合作，他们创建资源来帮助最终用户学习编程。这项工作将通过深入了解CS的STEM领域的非正式学习并关注未充分研究的成年人群，来补充STEM学习的学习科学研究。本研究将关注工作场所成年女性及其CS学习的社会文化障碍，这是一个研究较少的领域，将为非正式环境中女性学习STEM的文献做出贡献。

This study addresses two problems: the difficulty of using informal resources to learn to write computer code for job and career advancement and the lack of women in computer science (CS). The work will make a contribution to the literature on informal learning in the workplace through an in-depth investigation into the specific field of CS. It will focus on the specific task of using informal resources to learn to code and explore ways to improve those resources so learners can more effectively teach themselves to code. As Exploratory Pathways project, it will provide the pilot of a protocol investigating the contexts of informal CS learning by career women. It is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports work that provides multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.Little is understood about this phenomenon of how women in the workforce learn CS skills that enable them to rewrite their career paths. This project will take an ethnographic approach to studying the informal learning (both through online, written resources and through sharing of knowledge with others) of women involved in a grassroots, informal, volunteer group that has formed in order to help women help themselves and others learn to write computer code. The women's coding group will be made up of experienced administrators on the phenomenally successful Salesforce Customer Relationship Management software platform who are moving from end users of the software to end user programmers that extend the software by writing computer code to customize applications for particular business needs. This study aims to answer the overarching research question: In what ways are informal CS learning opportunities being used and created by adult women, what are their experiences with those opportunities, and how does this suggest ways to enhance those opportunities in the future to increase effectiveness in broadening access to and engagement in informal CS learning experiences for women? Specifically, the study will focus on personal context (e.g. what the learner brings to the learning situation), sociocultural context (e.g. interactions with others when learning to code), and physical context (e.g. the resources used and the virtual learning sessions) as well as how persistence and identity develop over time as the women are influenced by the contexts.The research is a collaboration between CS education and learning researchers, informal practitioners, and training practitioners who create resources to help end-users to learn to code. The work will complement learning sciences research on STEM learning by providing some depth to what is known about informal learning in the STEM field of CS and by focusing on an understudied adult population. This study will make contributions to the literature on females learning STEM in informal environments by focusing on adult women in the workplace and the sociocultural barriers to their learning of CS, which is an area of sparse research.