assessment in computing
The Assessment of Computing for Elementary Students (ACES) is a measure of computational thinking for upper-elementary students. The assessment currently focuses on loops and sequences, with block-based and Bebras-style questions. We published on creating and piloting the assessment and are currently working on further validation and expansion of the ACES. A video of our SIGCSE 2021 conference presentation can be found here.
The Second CS1 Assessment (SCS1) is a validated, pseudocode-based assessment for introductory computing. We shared our process of replicating a previously validated assessment and validating the replication. SCS1 can be used to measure student learning in various research interventions and to build and improve other CS assessments. We also conducted a retrospective of SCS1 five years after its release, remarking on how the computing education community has used and adapted the assessment, as well as an analysis of whether there are subscales within SCS1 that can be independently used to measure CS1 concepts.
If you’re interested in using the SCS1 in your classroom or research, please click here for more information.
Achievement in computing
Socioeconomic status (SES) is correlated with academic achievement, including computer science achievement. We explored the relationship between SES and CS achievement via mediating variables, namely spatial reasoning and access to computing. We found further evidence to support the relationship between spatial reasoning and SES and CS, which is promising for future efforts to minimize achievement gaps for low-SES students in CS.
Big-O analysis can be an incredibly difficult topic for undergraduates learning computer science. What is it about runtime analysis that make it hard for students to understand? We found that logarithms are a critical piece of the puzzle.
Access to computing
The crux of my dissertation work focused on the supports and barriers to accessing computing at the school level. I explored the relationship between public high schools in Georgia offering computer science and possible predictive variables at the school, district, and county levels. I followed this with building case studies of select schools that personify different aspects of the computer science landscape, to investigate esoteric variables that aren’t currently gathered in large, publicly-available data sets.
Elementary Computing for All (ECforALL) is an NSF- and DOE-funded project centered around a weekly Scratch-based curriculum for all elementary students to learn computational thinking. Built on a research-practice partnership with Santa Ana Unified School District in Orange County, California, ECforALL uses linguistic scaffolding, inquiry-based learning methods, and culturally responsive pedagogy to support multilingual students.
Jacob, S. R., Parker, M. C., Warschauer, M. (2022, January). Integration of Computational Thinking Into English Language Arts. In Computational Thinking in PreK-5: Empirical Evidence for Integration and Future Directions. ACM.
As computer science grows, teachers need resources for learning the content and pedagogical content knowledge needed to teach their students. Our work has focused on building browser-based eBooks for computer science, especially for AP CS Principles. Even though both teacher and students are learning the material for the first time, our research provides evidence that teachers use the eBook differently than their students.
Check out our eBook for students in CS Principles here.