1. CS TEACHER ED REQUIRES DIFFERENT GOALS AND METHODS THAN CS
MAJOR EDUCATION Mark Guzdial April 8, 2015 2. CS Teachers need CS
Content Knowledge: But how? 1. CS Teachers need different knowledge
and skills than Software Developers. 2. CS classes designed for
non-developers can be more successful than those for CS majors. If
we are ever to have pre-service professional development for CS
teachers, they need their own CS classes. 3. #1: CS Teachers need
different knowledge and skills 3 What do our model CS teachers do
and know? Defining a Successful CS Teacher: Recruits more students
into CS High pass rate Confident and satisfied with teaching CS 4.
How do you prepare your students for the AP CS exam? 4 Everything
in that class is more or less an assessment. Theyre supposed to
read certain sections in the book, and then they have quizzes over
the reading. After they do the reading assignments, they have
Gridworld case study quizzes and also Gridworld case study segments
of code that they will go in and manipulate to change to get the
things in the Gridworld case study to react different ways. Those
are pretty much graded as labs or programs or quizzes. 5. How do
you prepare your students for the AP CS exam? 5 Everything in that
class is more or less an assessment. Theyre supposed to read
certain sections in the book, and then they have quizzes over the
reading. After they do the reading assignments, they have Gridworld
case study quizzes and also Gridworld case study segments of code
that they will go in and manipulate to change to get the things in
the Gridworld case study to react different ways. Those are pretty
much graded as labs or programs or quizzes. 6. How do you prepare
your students for the AP CS exam? 6 And then if I read these
[student quizzes], I can see any misconceptions or gaps in what Ive
done. I get a picture in my mind of where the current class is.
Making them do the explaining is new this year. Im seeing them do a
lot better there. Ill do like little code (assignments) that theyll
write once a week. They have to write it by hand away from the
computer, and Ill read that and write them comments on what theyre
doing and help them grade it with a rubric, and also pass them back
after Ive read them for them to grade, too, and have them look at
what was catching it or where it didnt quite get to it. 7. How do
you prepare your students for the AP CS exam? 7 And then if I read
these [student quizzes], I can see any misconceptions or gaps in
what Ive done. I get a picture in my mind of where the current
class is. Making them do the explaining is new this year. Im seeing
them do a lot better there. Ill do like little code (assignments)
that theyll write once a week. They have to write it by hand away
from the computer, and Ill read that and write them comments on
what theyre doing and help them grade it with a rubric, and also
pass them back after Ive read them for them to grade, too, and have
them look at what was catching it or where it didnt quite get to
it. 8. A successful CS teacher 8 Writes assignments and comments,
not code. Guides students through rubrics, not syntax. Is
interested in learning (coding away from the computer, explaining),
not productivity. Is not all that focused on assessment. 9.
Students find developer-simple things complex 9 Brian Dorn found
that end-user programmers (CHI 2010) found assignment difficult to
learn. Dehnadi and Bornat tested understanding of assignment to
predict CS1 success. The predicting variable was consistent use of
model of assignment. 10. Common Misconceptions about Assignment 10
Assignment is a move. number1 is now empty. Assignment is a swap.
Assignment is a relationship. If we later change number1, number2
will automatically change. number1 = 14 number2 = number1 11.
Common Misconceptions about Assignment 11 Assignment is a move.
number1 is now empty. Assignment is a swap. Assignment is a
relationship. If we later change number1, number2 will
automatically change. number1 = 14 number2 = number1 This is not
where software developers focus. This is exactly where teachers
focus. 12. #2: Domain-specific classes Fall 1999: All students at
Georgia Tech must take a course in computer science. Considered
part of General Education, like mathematics, social science,
humanities 1999-2003: Only one course met the requirement.
Shackelfords pseudocode approach in 1999 Later Scheme: How to
Design Programs (MIT Press) 13. One-class CS1: Pass (A, B, or C)
vs. WDF (Withdrawal, D or F) Success Rates in CS1 from Fall 1999 to
Spring 2002 (Overall: 78%) Architecture 46.7% Biology 64.4%
Economics 53.5% History 46.5% Management 48.5% Public Policy 47.9%
14. Contextualized Computing Education Whats going on? Research
results: Computing is tedious, boring, irrelevant Since Spring
2003, Georgia Tech teaches three introductory CS courses. Based on
Margolis and Fishers alternative paths Each course introduces
computing using a context (examples, homework assignments, lecture
discussion) relevant to majors. Make computing relevant by teaching
it in terms of what computers are good for (from the students
perspective) 15. 15 Open-ended, contextualized homework Sound
collage 16. Asking women: What is CS to you? MediaComp Traditional
Rich, Perry, Guzdial, SIGCSE 2004 17. 38 Survey One Year Later 19%
of respondents had programmed since class ended "Did the class
change how you interact with computers? 80% say Yes Definitely
makes me think of what is going on behind the scenes of such
programs like Photoshop and Illustrator. 'I understand
technological concepts more easily now; I am more willing and able
to experience new things with computers now 'I have learned more
about the big picture behind computer science and programming. This
has helped me to figure out how to use programs that I've never
used before. 18. Results:CS1Media Computation 86.470% 88.360%
84.710% 89.870% 91.940% 87.500% 80.330% 82.900% 77.460% 12.540%
10.270% 14.650% 9.370% 7.580% 11.410% 19.650% 17.100% 22.540% Total
Fall03 Females Fall03 Males Fall03 Total Sp04 Females Sp04 Males
Sp04 Total Fall04 Females Fall04 Males Fall04 WDF Pass Change in
Success rates in CS1 Media Computation from Spring 2003 to Fall
2005 (Overall 85%) Architecture 46.7% 85.7% Biology 64.4% 90.4%
Economics 54.5% 92.0% History 46.5% 67.6% Management 48.5% 87.8%
Public Policy 47.9% 85.4% 19. Summary: Successful CS teachers are
different than software developers. Different skills PCK
Traditional CS classes tend to be focused on software development.
Classes that teach the CS specific to a particular group can be
successful: Retention and Longterm Usefulness. 19 20. Thanks!
Colleagues: Barbara Ericson, Tom McKlin, Lijun Ni, Briana Morrison,
& Brian Dorn Our Funders: US National Science Foundation
Statewide BPC Alliance: Project Georgia Computes!
http://www.gacomputes.org Expanding Computing Education Pathways
Alliance, http://expandingcomputing.org CCLI and CPATH Grants, and
now CE21 to produce new media Georgias Department of Education GVU
Center, and Institute for People and Technology (iPaT) at Georgia
Tech 21. For more information:
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~mark.guzdial Lab:
http://home.cc.gatech.edu/csl Institute for Computing Education at
Georgia Tech: http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt For more on
MediaComp: http://www.mediacomputation.org
