Teaching High School CS Teachers: Learning CS Without Hours in
Front of Eclipse
Mark GuzdialSchool of Interactive ComputingCollege of
ComputingGeorgia Institute of TechnologyTeaching High School CS
Teachers: Learning CS Without Hours in Front of Eclipse
Big Question: What is a better medium for self-paced computer
science learning than a paper book?
Story:We do not have enough high school teachers to create
undergraduate CS success. NSFs goal: Computer Science: Principles
=> CS10KOptions to achieve the CS10K goals:#1. Use technology
instead of teachers (Patterson & Kay)#2. Teach in-service
teachers CS using distance technology.Idea: Consider the use of
worked examples, informed by Goels SBF Model of design
knowledge.The choice of worked examples and measuring learning
comes from cognitive tutors.Afterword: The Need for
CommunityUndergraduate CS success depends onhigh school CS
existenceStudents negative perceptions of computer science are
well-established by high school years (Yardi & Bruckman, 2007;
ACM & WGBH Image Study)Claim: Almost any high school computer
science is an improvement.The vast majority (>80%) of Georgia
students who enter undergraduate CS had some high school
experience.But there are simply not enough high school CS teachers
to go around.In US, 2000 AP CS high school teachers, for some 42K
high
schools.http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_086.asp30,648
public schools; 11,870 private; 850,750 kids in secondary schools,
2007-20084
NSFs Goal: CS:P => CS10KFirst, create a new, high-quality
course that attracts students and can be taught
nationally.http://www.csprinciples.org
Secondly, have 10,000 teachers ready and able to teach this
course in 10,000 schools by 2015: CS10KHow do we get there?From
2,000 to 10,000 teachers in four years?Where are we going to get
8,000 more teachers?
Two options in Teacher
Education:Pre-serviceIn-serviceClaimsClaim: They are not going to
come from pre-service teacher education.Uteach at U-T@Austin has
offered pre-service CS ed for 15 years, with only 7
graduates.Purdue has a program, with only one teacher
enrolled.Using pre-service to ramp-up an area doesnt work: U.Ga.
storyClaim: We have to do in-service CS teacher education a whole
lot better.Columbus State in Georgia offers in-service CS teacher
endorsement: First student dropped out in first semester, second
student in her first semester.
They dont have the pre-requisite skills; they cant spend hours
in front of a computer.11Traditional CS Pedagogy is Wrong for These
StudentsTraditional pattern:Lecture, book-reading, maybe some
live-coding.Occasional quizzes/exams.Go solve this problem that is
related but beyond anything weve done in class.=> Hours in front
of EclipseOption 1: Dont Use TeachersDave Patterson (Berkeley) and
Alan Kay: Use Technology Instead.My belief that the K-12 CS
education problem is practically unsolvable for the next 10-20
years in the US is based on:No room in the high-school curriculum
for CS.Low pay for new teachers.Changing education policy is hard
and takes a long time, and there is little reason to believe you
will succeed.This is a state by state, school district by school
district level of change involving many advocacy groups. Most
proposed solutions dont scale.There are roughly 50,000 high schools
and 80,000 elementary schools and middle schools in the US.
Whatever you are proposing, think about the time scale your
innovation would take to affect 10% of these schools.
http://computinged.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/dave-patterson-on-fixing-high-school-cs-education/
These are all real and significant problems. #1 and #3 may be
solved by APCS. #2 is particular significant for Operation:
Reboot.13Could we do this?Best successful large-scale example is
probably Open University UK.Very expensive courses, e.g., 2.5M
pounds but amortized over thousands of students.Largest single
budget item: MentorsSomething you can tell me about:OLI CS
Classes?But could we teach all of CS: Principles like this? For
high school students? And is that a long-term solution?
Option #2: Figure out a new way to teach high school CS
teachersGiven that the focus is in-service teachers:It must be
distance education to fit with schedules.Learning must happen
primarily in 20-60 minute chunks.What could we use from Cognitive
Tutors here?Software-develop problem-solving skills may not be the
desired goal-state.What is the knowledge that teachers need to be
successful?Knowledge of content, PCK, ability to critique and guide
students, etc.Maybe the problem-solving task of importance is
identifying and remediating unproductive mental models?Ability to
map to several different tools is critical:Scratch, Alice, Excel,
Python.Expensive (even with CTAT) to build problem sets for all
these tools.Idea: Examples + Exercises + EvaluationCould we teach
the knowledge, apart from the problem-solving, less expensively
using a worked examples approach (Sweller & Cooper, 1985)?We
know how to construct examples a lot better now than then (e.g.,
Atkinson, Derry, Renkl, & Wortham, 2000).Only Pirolli (with
Recker) explored worked examples in CS (until Leigh Ann publishes
her work).A LOT more examples than we normally teach, 8 examples
for each of 7 SIMPLE primitives just as part of the
training.Examples of What?Just look at a lot of code?What are
pieces of CS knowledge?Suggestion: Structure, Behavior, and
Function (Goel)Successful use (with Hmelo) for teaching biological
systems (e.g., aquaria, respiratory systems).
Learning CS as SBFStructure: CodeThats significant and not
simple for students (Jadud, 2006)Function: PurposeStudents
generally cant figure out purpose from code (BRACELET in
Australasia)Behavior: All novices in all disciplines struggle with
behavior.Exercises:Conveying and Practicing BehaviorProgram
visualization systems demonstrate behavior that results from
structure.Meta analysis of studies suggest that the lack of
practice leads to a lack of learning (Hundhausen, Douglas, &
Stasko, 2002)Suggestion:UUHistle + CTAT?
Imagining a New CS PedagogyStudents review many worked
examples.With frequent exercises designed to test knowledge for
teacher as well as students needs (Karpicke & Blunt, 2011).They
practice: assembling structure (e.g., programming code), tracing
behavior, with known function (context),in small-granularity
chunks.Research QuestionsWould an approach of CS worked examples
plus practice lead to fewer detail errors when faced with a
programming task?Does a worked example approach that emphasizes
mathematics underpinnings provide the mathematical background that
in-service teachers lack when faced with programming
classes?Longer-term: Because there are multiple interlocking
pieces, they might be constructed as a crowdsourced process. Could
this be done cheaply?
Evaluation: How would we know if this was working?What part of
cognitive tutors is most responsible for the learning gains:The
decomposition of the domain into pieces, and tracking learning
(e.g., error rates) on those pieces?The tracing of the behavior
through the problem solving?Could we track student learning through
examples like tutors track student learning across problem-solving
activities?We track the concepts in the examples.We track which
examples are seen by which students.We assign credit/blame to
examples based on performance on practice exercises.Summary:
Examples + Exercises + EvaluationWorked examples might be studied
in 20-60 minute chunks.We replace multi-hour sessions in front of
an IDE with many smaller exercises.We take inspiration from SBF
Models to inform the kinds of examples and the kinds of
exercises.Hypothesis: Worked examples + exercises might reduce
student effort/time when faced with an IDE.We evaluate the success
of examples by tracking student progression and use credit/blame
assignment based on exercise performance.Afterword: How do we end
up with more than 5K teachers in 2020?50% of STEM teachers leave in
first five years.Identifying as a teacher or kind-of teacher has an
important impact on retention and quality of teaching, e.g.,
seeking professional developmentBut primary factor influencing
teacher identity: CertificationSo how do we create a sense of
identity for high school CS teachers?Community (Ni, 2011)
DCCE. Creating community and creating leaders.26
