Computer Science Education Research – a smattering of results Carol Zander Threshold Concepts Debugging Software Design Fixed vs. Growth Mindset

Threshold Concepts Threshold concepts (Meyer and Land, 2005) -Transformative -Integrative -Irreversible -Troublesome -Characteristic of the discipline

Threshold Concepts For example: Math: limit Literature: irony Physics: heat transfer Economics: opportunity cost Medicine: pain

Threshold Concepts Good evidence that two specific concepts satisfy the criteria: - Object-oriented programming - Pointers/memory

Threshold Concepts – other work Searching for threshold concepts and investigation overview (Eckerdal et al., 2006; Boustedt et al., 2007; Zander et al., 2008; Thomas et al., 2009) Learning troublesome concepts (McCartney et al., 2007) Liminal spaces (Eckerdal et al., 2007, McCartney et al., 2007) Integration associated with object-oriented programming (Sanders et al., 2008) Transformations related to “abstraction” (Moström et al., 2008) Transformations (Moström et al., 2009, Zander et al., 2009, Thomas et al., to appear)

Threshold Concepts – recent work Harnessing Surprise: Tales from Students' Transformational Biographies Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), 2010, to appear Based on philosophical position that surprise causes learning … (MRI scans give evidence that memory and the learning of concepts is enhanced by surprise.) … as educators, we should try and set up situations in which our students experience it more often.

Debugging Debugging: Finding, Fixing and Flailing, A Multi-Institutional Study of Novice Debuggers Computer Science Education Journal, 2008 Figure shows quality of debugging strategies versus bugs fixed. Student self-assessment of debugging ability shown in error bars.

Debugging Journal, 2008

Debugging Debugging: The Good, the Bad, and the Quirky – a Qualitative Analysis of Novices’ Strategies Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), 2008

Debugging strategies Gain domain knowledgeIsolating the problem Tracing, including: Mental, Print & Debugger Pattern matching Consider alternatives TestingEnvironmental Understanding codeWork around problem Using resourcesJust in Case Using ToolsTinkering

Software Design Categorizing Student Software Designs: Methods, results, and implications Computer Science Education Journal, 2005 Can Graduating Students Design Software? Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), 2006

Software Design Large study – 22 researchers from 22 institutions, 4 countries (150 graduating senior designs) Design task: Given a challenging design problem – Analyze, decompose and organize a task into meaningful and manageable parts

Software design categories Nothing – little or no content Restatement – restates design requirements Skumtomte – small amount past restatement First step – some significant work past restatement Partial design – provides a description of the parts, and overview showing relationships, but incomplete Complete design – well-developed solutions which include an understandable overview, part descriptions with explicit communication between the parts

Can graduating students design software? NO

Fixed vs. Growth Mindset Carol Dweck studied mindsets about intelligence and academic success Fixed mindset (fixed intelligence) – avoid challenges and perform worse academically Grow mindset – intelligence can grow with effort and hard work Take-away message: Don’t tell students they are successful because they are smart … emphasize hard work leads to success Research done – “Saying is believing” exercise