Infusing Cooperative Learning into AP Computer Science Principles Courses to Promote Engagement and Diversity

The Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles (AP CSP) course was the culmination of an eight-year NSF/College Board pilot project that exceeded all expectations in terms of enrollment in its first two official years. Four NSF-sponsored projects and six other projects have endorsed AP CSP curricula and professional development (PD), a first for an AP course. In this paper, we report on an NSF-sponsored multi-year effort to infuse cooperative learning (CL) structures into AP CSP classrooms to improve class participation and student learning. As we report, CL structures have been beneficial for both new and experienced teachers and across the curricula of the endorsed providers. Since AP CSP was designed to engage all learners, the CL structures used in our PD workshops and the CL resources designed by participating teachers in our project have the potential to positively impact all AP CSP classrooms. Research was conducted on the extent to which use of CL structures impacted student efficacy and student achievement. Three cohorts of AP CSP teachers participated in PD that focused on AP CSP pedagogical content knowledge using CL structures. A cumulative 143 teachers attended one-week PD workshops spanning July 2015, 2016, and 2017. We studied the effect of CL structures on student learning using AP scores as an outcomes measure. Use of CL structures was a statistically significant and positive predictor of student AP scores for participating classes in cohorts 2 and 3. Additionally, the use of pair programming was a significant and positive predictor of AP scores.