ICER 2012 Day 3 Research Paper Session 5

The last of the research paper sessions and, dear reader, I am sure that you are as glad as I that we are here. Reading about an interesting conference that you didn’t attend is a bit like receiving a message from a friend talking about how he kissed the person that you always loved from afar. Thanks for the information but I would rather have been there myself.

This session opened with “Toward a Validated Computing Attitudes Survey” (Allison Elliott Tew, Brian Dorn and Oliver Schneider), where the problems with negative perceptions of the field and hostile classroom environments, combined with people thinking that they would be no good at CS, conspire to prevent students coming in to, or selecting, our discipline. The Computing Attitudes Survey was built, with major modification, from the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS, pronounced C-LASS). To adapt the original survey, some material was just copied across with a word change (computer science replacing physics), some terminology was changed (algorithm for formula) and some discipline specific statements were added. Having established an expert opinion basis for the discipline specific content, students can now see how much they agree with the experts.

There is, as always, the rip of contentious issues. “You have to know maths to be able to program” was a three-way split within the expert group as to who agreed, disagreed or was neutral. What was interesting, and what I’ll be looking at in future, is the evidence of self-defeating thought in many answers (no, not questions. The questions weren’t self-defeatist but the answers often were.) What was also interesting is that attitudes seem to get worse in the CLASS instrument after you take the course!

Confidence, as simple as “I think I can do this”, plays a fundamental part in determining how students will act. Given the incredibly difficult decisions that a student faces when selecting their degree or concentration, it is no surprise that anyone who thinks “Computing is too hard for me” or “Computing is no use to me” will choose to do something else.

The authors are looking for volunteers where they can run these trials again so, after you’ve read their paper, if you’re interested, you should probably e-mail them.

“A Statewide Survey on Computing Education Pathways and Influences: Factors in Broadening Participation in Computing” (Mark Guzdial, Barbara Ericson, Tom McKlin and Shelly Engelman)

The final research paper in the conference dealt with the final evaluation of the Georgia Computes! initiative, which had run from October 2006 to August of this year. This multi-year project cannot be contained in my nervous babbling but I can talk about the instrument that was presented. Having run summer camps, weekend workshops, competitions, teacher workshops, a teachers’ lending library, first year engagement and seeded first-year summer camps (whew!), the question was: What had been the impact of Georgia Computes! ? What factors influence undergrad enrolment into intro CS courses?

There were many questions and results presented but I’d like to focus on the top four reasons given, from survey, as to why students weren’t going to undertake a CS Major or Minor:

1. I don’t want to do the type of work
2. Little interest in the subject matter
3. Don’t enjoy Computing Courses
4. Don’t have confidence that I would succeed.

Looking at those points, after a state-wide and highly successful campaign over 6 years has finished, it is very, very sobering for me. What these students are saying is that they cannot see the field as attractive, interesting, enjoyable or that they are capable. But these are all aspects that we can work on, although some of these will require a lot of work.

Two further things that Barb said really struck me. Firstly, that if you take into account encouragement and ability, that men will tend to be satisfied and continue on if they receive either or both – the factors are not separable for men – but that women and minorities need encouragement in order to feel satisfied and to convince them to keep going. Secondly, when it comes to giving encouragement, male professors are just as effective as female professors in terms of giving encouragement to women.

As a male lecturer, who is very, very clearly aware of the demographic disgrace that is the under-representation of women in CS, this first fact gives me a partial strategy to increase retention (and reinforces a believe I have held anecdotally for some time) but the second fact gives me the agency to assist in this process, as well as greater hope for a steadily increasing female cohort over time.

Overall, a very positive note on which to finish the session papers!