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Pedagogy that Supports Computer Science for All

Published: 16 July 2019 Publication History

Abstract

The Computer Science (CS) for All movement has taken hold of the United States and CS education is rapidly expanding across nations throughout the world. Yet, as curricula and professional development opportunities are developed, key questions remain about what “works” for engaging youth in CS education, especially those who are historically underrepresented in the field (including young women, students of color, low-income students). In response, this study answers the questions: What teaching practices do students—who are historically underrepresented in CS—believe are most effective for engaging their interest in CS learning? What pedagogical actions do CS teachers identify as most effective for engaging students? And what do these engaging teaching practices look like in the classroom? Through a qualitative study following three different urban high school Exploring Computer Science classrooms over an entire school year (n = 70 students, 3 teachers; >105h of observation data; >50 interviews with students and teachers), key pedagogical practices that had greatest impact on youth's interest and engagement with CS included: (1) demystifying CS by showing its connections to everyday life; (2) addressing social issues impacting both CS and students’ communities; and (3) valuing students’ voices and perspectives. This article shares testimonies from students and teachers, as well as examples of these teaching practices in the classroom.

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  • (2024)Advancing Equity and Access: Addressing the Side Effects of Broadening Participation in Computer Science K–12 EducationReview of Research in Education10.3102/0091732X24128647548:1(121-153)Online publication date: 28-Oct-2024
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Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Computing Education
ACM Transactions on Computing Education  Volume 19, Issue 4
Special Section on ML Education and Regular Articles
December 2019
297 pages
EISSN:1946-6226
DOI:10.1145/3345033
Issue’s Table of Contents
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 16 July 2019
Accepted: 01 March 2019
Revised: 01 February 2019
Received: 01 June 2018
Published in TOCE Volume 19, Issue 4

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Author Tags

  1. CS for All
  2. Pedagogy
  3. engagement
  4. equity

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  • Research
  • Refereed

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  • National Science Foundation and John Randolph Haynes Foundation

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  • (2024)Scaffolded team-based computational modeling and simulation projects for promoting representational competence and regulatory skillsInternational Journal of STEM Education10.1186/s40594-024-00494-311:1Online publication date: 30-Jul-2024
  • (2024)Playful programming, Social Resilience, and Persistent Actions as Drivers of Preservice Early Childhood Teachers’ Engagement in Computer ScienceSage Open10.1177/2158244024128448814:4Online publication date: 10-Nov-2024
  • (2024)“Show Them the Playbook That These Companies Are Using”: Youth Voices about Why Computer Science Education Must Center Discussions of Power, Ethics, and Culturally Responsive ComputingACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/366064524:3(1-21)Online publication date: 23-Apr-2024
  • (2024)Faculty, Student, and Community Partner Experiences in Computer and Information Science Service LearningACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/365467824:3(1-26)Online publication date: 27-Mar-2024
  • (2024)The Role of Accountability Benchmarks to Increase Equity and Diversity in K-12 Computer Science EducationProceedings of the 2024 on RESPECT Annual Conference10.1145/3653666.3656105(116-121)Online publication date: 16-May-2024
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  • (2024)Pathways to inclusive early childhood computational thinking education: unveiling young students’ strategies with multiple representationsJournal of Research on Technology in Education10.1080/15391523.2024.2410194(1-24)Online publication date: 9-Oct-2024
  • (2024)Bridging cultures and computing: Exploring the relationship between Appalachian problem solving and computational thinkingJournal of Research on Technology in Education10.1080/15391523.2024.2399257(1-17)Online publication date: 10-Sep-2024
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