Improving Computer Science Education examines suitable theoretical frameworks for conceptualizing teaching and learning computer science. This highly useful book provides numerous examples of practical, "real world" applications of major computer science information topics, such as: • Spreadsheets • Databases • Programming Each chapter concludes with a section that summarzies recommendations for teacher professional development. Traditionally, computer science education has been skills-focused and disconnected from the reality students face after they leave the classroom. Improving Computer Science Education makes the subject matter useful and meaningful by connecting it explicitly to students' everyday lives.
The field of computer science (CS) is currently experiencing a surge in undergraduate degree production and course enrollments, which is straining program resources at many institutions and causing concern among faculty and administrators about how best to respond to the rapidly growing demand. There is also significant interest about what this growth will mean for the future of CS programs, the role of computer science in academic institutions, the field as a whole, and U.S. society more broadly. Assessing and Responding to the Growth of Computer Science Undergraduate Enrollments seeks to provide a better understanding of the current trends in computing enrollments in the context of past trends. It examines drivers of the current enrollment surge, relationships between the surge and current and potential gains in diversity in the field, and the potential impacts of responses to the increased demand for computing in higher education, and it considers the likely effects of those responses on students, faculty, and institutions. This report provides recommendations for what institutions of higher education, government agencies, and the private sector can do to respond to the surge and plan for a strong and sustainable future for the field of CS in general, the health of the institutions of higher education, and the prosperity of the nation.
This title examines suitable theoretical frameworks for conceptualizing teaching and learning computer science. The book provides numerous examples of practical, 'real world' applications of major computer science information topics, such as spreadsheets, databases, and programming.
Why so few African American and Latino/a students study computer science: updated edition of a book that reveals the dynamics of inequality in American schools. The number of African Americans and Latino/as receiving undergraduate and advanced degrees in computer science is disproportionately low. And relatively few African American and Latino/a high school students receive the kind of institutional encouragement, educational opportunities, and preparation needed for them to choose computer science as a field of study and profession. In Stuck in the Shallow End, Jane Margolis and coauthors look at the daily experiences of students and teachers in three Los Angeles public high schools: an overcrowded urban high school, a math and science magnet school, and a well-funded school in an affluent neighborhood. They find an insidious “virtual segregation” that maintains inequality. The race gap in computer science, Margolis discovers, is one example of the way students of color are denied a wide range of occupational and educational futures. Stuck in the Shallow End is a story of how inequality is reproduced in America—and how students and teachers, given the necessary tools, can change the system. Since the 2008 publication of Stuck in the Shallow End, the book has found an eager audience among teachers, school administrators, and academics. This updated edition offers a new preface detailing the progress in making computer science accessible to all, a new postscript, and discussion questions (coauthored by Jane Margolis and Joanna Goode).
"Intelligent Support for Computer Science Education presents the authors' research journey into the effectiveness of human tutoring, with the goal of developing educational technology that can be used to improve introductory Computer Science education at the undergraduate level. Nowadays, Computer Science education is central to the concerns of society, as attested by the penetration of information technology in all aspects of our lives; consequently, in the last few years interest in Computer Science at all levels of schooling, especially at the college level, has been flourishing. However, introductory concepts in Computer Science such as data structures and recursion are difficult for novices to grasp. This book will be of special interest to the Computer Science education community, specifically instructors of introductory courses at the college level, and Advanced Placement (AP) courses at the high school level. Additionally, all the authors' work is relevant to the Educational Technology community, especially to those working in Intelligent Tutoring Systems, their interfaces, and Educational Data Mining, in particular as applied to human-human pedagogical interactions and to user interaction with educational software"--
The world is experiencing unprecedented rapidity of change, originating from pervasive technological developments. This book considers the effects of such rapid change from within computing disciplines, by allowing computing educationalists to deliver a considered verdict on the future of their discipline. The targeted future, the year 2020, was chosen to be distant enough to encourage authors to risk being visionary, while being close enough to ensure some anchorage to reality. The result is a scholarly set of contributions expressing the visions, hopes, concerns, predictions and analyses of trends for the future.
This book provides an overview of how to approach computer science education research from a pragmatic perspective. It represents the diversity of traditions and approaches inherent in this interdisciplinary area, while also providing a structure within which to make sense of that diversity. It provides multiple 'entry points'- to literature, to methods, to topics Part One, 'The Field and the Endeavor', frames the nature and conduct of research in computer science education. Part Two, 'Perspectives and Approaches', provides a number of grounded chapters on particular topics or themes, written by experts in each domain. These chapters cover the following topics: * design * novice misconceptions * programming environments for novices * algorithm visualisation * a schema theory view on learning to program * critical theory as a theoretical approach to computer science education research Juxtaposed and taken together, these chapters indicate just how varied the perspectives and research approaches can be. These chapters, too, act as entry points, with illustrations drawn from published work.
The growing trend for high-quality computer science in school curricula has drawn recent attention in classrooms. With an increasingly information-based and global society, computer science education coupled with computational thinking has become an integral part of an experience for all students, given that these foundational concepts and skills intersect cross-disciplinarily with a set of mental competencies that are relevant in their daily lives and work. While many agree that these concepts should be taught in schools, there are systematic inequities that exist to prevent students from accessing related computer science skills. The Handbook of Research on Equity in Computer Science in P-16 Education is a comprehensive reference book that highlights relevant issues, perspectives, and challenges in P-16 environments that relate to the inequities that students face in accessing computer science or computational thinking and examines methods for challenging these inequities in hopes of allowing all students equal opportunities for learning these skills. Additionally, it explores the challenges and policies that are created to limit access and thus reinforce systems of power and privilege. The chapters highlight issues, perspectives, and challenges faced in P-16 environments that include gender and racial imbalances, population of growing computer science teachers who are predominantly white and male, teacher preparation or lack of faculty expertise, professional development programs, and more. It is intended for teacher educators, K-12 teachers, high school counselors, college faculty in the computer science department, school administrators, curriculum and instructional designers, directors of teaching and learning centers, policymakers, researchers, and students.
As technology continues to develop and prove its importance in modern society, certain professions are acclimating. Aspects such as computer science and computational thinking are becoming essential areas of study. Implementing these subject areas into teaching practices is necessary for younger generations to adapt to the developing world. There is a critical need to examine the pedagogical implications of these technological skills and implement them into the global curriculum. The Handbook of Research on Integrating Computer Science and Computational Thinking in K-12 Education is a collection of innovative research on the methods and applications of computer science curriculum development within primary and secondary education. While highlighting topics including pedagogical implications, comprehensive techniques, and teacher preparation models, this book is ideally designed for teachers, IT consultants, curriculum developers, instructional designers, educational software developers, higher education faculty, administrators, policymakers, researchers, and graduate students.
This textbook presents both a conceptual framework and detailed implementation guidelines for computer science (CS) teaching. Updated with the latest teaching approaches and trends, and expanded with new learning activities, the content of this new edition is clearly written and structured to be applicable to all levels of CS education and for any teaching organization. Features: provides 110 detailed learning activities; reviews curriculum and cross-curriculum topics in CS; explores the benefits of CS education research; describes strategies for cultivating problem-solving skills, for assessing learning processes, and for dealing with pupils’ misunderstandings; proposes active-learning-based classroom teaching methods, including lab-based teaching; discusses various types of questions that a CS instructor or trainer can use for a range of teaching situations; investigates thoroughly issues of lesson planning and course design; examines the first field teaching experiences gained by CS teachers.
