Education Commons^™

Toward Cs1 Content Subscales: A Mixed-Methods Analysis Of An Introductory Computing Assessment, Miranda C. Parker, Matt J. Davidson, Yvonne S. Kao, Lauren Margulieux, Zachary Tidler, Jan Vahrenhold

Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Background and Context. There is a constant, demonstrated need for valid and reliable assessments in computing education research. While there exist assessments at a course-based level (e.g., CS1, Data Structures, Discrete math, etc.), instructors and researchers would also like concept-based subscales that are more fine-grained. However, assessments designed and validated at the course level need additional work to determine whether they can reliably and validly measure individual concepts.

Objectives. In this paper, we explore the content and factor structure of an existing CS1 assessment, the Second CS1 (SCS1) assessment, which consists of nine CS1 concepts and three question types (definitional, …

The Curious Case Of Loops, Briana Baker Morrison, Lauren Margulieux, Adrienne Decker

Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Background and Context: Subgoal labeled worked examples are effective for teaching computing concepts, but the research to date has been reported in a piecemeal fashion. This paper aggregates data from three studies, including data that has not been previously reported upon, to examine more holistically the effect of subgoal labeled worked examples across three student populations and across different instructional designs.

Objective: By aggregating the data, we provide more statistical and explanatory power for somewhat surprising yet replicable results. We discuss which results generalize across populations, focusing on a stable effect size to be expected when using subgoal labels in …

What Do We Think We Think We Are Doing?: Metacognition And Self-Regulation In Programming, James Prather, Brett A. Becker, Michelle Craig, Paul Denny, Dastyni Loksa, Lauren Margulieux

Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Metacognition and self-regulation are popular areas of interest in programming education, and they have been extensively researched outside of computing. While computing education researchers should draw upon this prior work, programming education is unique enough that we should explore the extent to which prior work applies to our context. The goal of this systematic review is to support research on metacognition and self-regulation in programming education by synthesizing relevant theories, measurements, and prior work on these topics. By reviewing papers that mention metacognition or self-regulation in the context of programming, we aim to provide a benchmark of our current progress …

Using The Solo Taxonomy To Understand Subgoal Labels Effect In Cs1, Adrienne Decker, Lauren Margulieux, Briana B. Morrison

Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

is work extends previous research on subgoal labeled instructions by examining their effect across a semester-long, Java-based CS1 course. Across four quizzes, students were asked to explain in plain English the process that they would use to solve a programming problem. In this mixed methods study, we used the SOLO taxonomy to categorize student responses about problem-solving processes and compare students who learned with subgoal labels to those who did not. e use of the SOLO taxonomy classification allows us to look deeper than the mere correctness of answers to focus on the quality of the answers produced in terms …