NEW ARTICLE! “Teachers’ goals predict computational thinking gains in robotics”

Our latest article “Teachers’ goals predict computational thinking gains in robotics” was just published in Information and Learning Sciences!

You can download the submitted, pre-publication version of the article here.

The link to the published version of record is here.

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Abstract

Purpose:Computational thinking (CT) is widely considered to be an important component of teaching generalizable computer science skills to all students in a range of learning environments, including robotics. However, despite advances in the design of robotics curricula that can teach CT, actual enactment in classrooms may often fail to reach this target. Understanding the various instructional goals teachers’ hold when using these curricula may offer one potential explanation for disparities in outcomes.
Design:In this study, we examine results from N=206 middle school students’ pre- and post-tests of computational thinking, attitudinal surveys, and surveys of their teacher’s instructional goals, to determine if student attitudes and learning gains in computational thinking are related to the instructional goals their teachers endorsed while implementing a shared robotics programming curriculum.
Results:Our findings provide evidence that despite using the same curriculum, students showed differential learning gains on the computational thinking assessment when in classrooms with teachers who rated computational thinking as a more important instructional goal; these effects were particularly strong for women. Students in classroom with teachers who rated computational thinking more highly also showed greater maintenance of positive attitudes towards programming.
Originality/Value:While there is a growing body of literature regarding curricular interventions that provide computational thinking learning opportunities, this study provides a critical insight into the role that teachers may play as a potential support or barrier to the success of these curricula. Implications for the design of professional development and teacher educative materials that attend to teachers’ instructional goals are discussed.

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Citation:

Eben Witherspoon, Christian D. Schunn, (2019) “Teachers’ goals predict computational thinking gains in robotics”, Information and Learning Sciences, https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-05-2018-0035

Poster presented at ICLS 2018 – London

Just getting over some jet lag after re-crossing the pond, where I was presenting a poster of my recent work on instructional goal-setting and computational thinking at the 2018 International Conference of the Learning Sciences in London.

You can check out the poster here.

AIED and L@S were also running concurrently as part of the Festival of Learning, so that (in addition to the fact that England was playing in a World Cup game while I was there) made it a very full trip.

Gave a conference talk at SIGCSE 2018

Finally got my feet wet in the conference scene, by giving my paper talk titled “Developing Computational Thinking in a Virtual Robotics Programming Curriculum” at the Special Interest Group – Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) Conference in Baltimore, MD.  Slides are available here.

Good turnout, good feedback, and great blue crab, oysters and Narragansett to relax afterwords at the Thames Street Oyster House.

Poster accepted at ICLS 2018

My poster titled “The role of instructional goal setting for teaching computational thinking in robotics classrooms” was accepted at the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) in London this summer!

Looking forward to sharing some preliminary work on how we are measuring instructional goals of K-12 robotics teachers, and the influence they may have on students learning gains in computational thinking.

Also, meat pies and mash.

NEW ARTICLE! “Attending to structural programming features predicts differences in learning and motivation”

Our latest article “Attending to structural programming features predicts differences in learning and motivation” was just published in the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning!

You can download the submitted, pre-publication version of the article here.

The link to the published version of record is here.

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Abstract

Educational robotics programs offer an engaging opportunity to potentially teach core computer science concepts and practices in K-12 classrooms. Here we test the effects of units with different programming content within a virtual robotics context on both learning gains and motivational changes in middle school (6^th-8^th grade) robotics classrooms. Significant learning gains were found overall, particularly for groups introduced to content involving program flow, the structural logic of program execution. Relative gains for these groups were particularly high on items that require the transfer of knowledge to dissimilar contexts. Reaching units that included program flow content was also associated with greater maintenance of programming interest when compared with other units. Therefore, our results suggest that explicit instruction in the structural logic of programming may develop deeper transferrable programming knowledge, and prevent declines in some motivational factors.

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Citation:

Witherspoon EB, Schunn CD, Higashi RM, Shoop R (2018). Attending to structural programming features predicts differences in learning and motivation. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 33(7), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12219

NEW ARTICLE! “Developing Computational Thinking through a Virtual Robotics Programming Curriculum”

Our latest article “Developing Computational Thinking through a Virtual Robotics Programming Curriculum” was just published in the ACM’s Transactions on Computing Education journal!

You can download the accepted, pre-publication version of the article here.

The link to the published version of record is here.

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Abstract

Computational thinking describes key principles from computer science that are broadly generalizable. Robotics programs can be engaging learning environments for acquiring core computational thinking competencies. However, few empirical studies evaluate the effectiveness of a robotics programming curriculum for developing computational thinking knowledge and skills. This study measures pre/post gains with new computational thinking assessments given to middle school students who participated in a virtual robotics programming curriculum. Overall, participation in the virtual robotics curriculum was related to significant gains in pre- to posttest scores, with larger gains for students who made further progress through the curriculum. The success of this intervention suggests that participation in a scaffolded programming curriculum, within the context of virtual robotics, supports the development of generalizable computational thinking knowledge and skills that are associated with increased problem-solving performance on nonrobotics computing tasks. Furthermore, the particular units that students engage in may determine their level of growth in these competencies.

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Citation: 

Witherspoon, E.B., Higashi, R.M., Schunn, C.D., Baehr, E.C., Shoop, R. (2017). Developing computational thinking practices through a virtual robotics programming curriculum. ACM Transactions on Computing Education, 18(1), 20. doi: 10.1145/3104982