Education Commons^™

Chapter 10- Preparing The Effective Mentor, Natasha Mickel

Making Connections

Mentoring is a central component of teaching and learning in academia that involves mentors ranging from novice to advanced mentoring experience. Mentoring has been found to play a crucial role in successful career development at every professional level in academia. Consequently, it’s imperative that institutions design and implement mentoring programs that prepare mentors, regardless of background, to establish, build, and maintain positive mentoring relationships.

This chapter begins by discussing mentoring and its role in academia. As institutions strive to retain faculty, staff, and students, it serves institutions well to understand how the successful implementation of effective mentoring programs can close …

Chapter 9- Defining Recruitment, Selection, And Matching Strategies, Paul Hernandez, Don Busenbark, Kim Hales, David Law

Making Connections

Chapter 9, “Defining Recruitment, Selection, and Matching Strategies” guides the program coordinator in recruiting mentors and mentees, selecting who will be in the mentoring program, and matching participants. The section on recruitment begins by emphasizing how the needs assessment, university vision, and program goals and objectives should align to create a clear vision and purpose for the mentoring program. It also describes how communication practices in various university ecosystems, rewards and incentives, and activities enhance enrollment. The section on selection delineates mentors’ positive and negative characteristics, exploring in-depth critical mentor communication skills and the characteristics of successful mentees. Finally, the …

Communicating About Computational Thinking: Understanding Affordances Of Portfolios For Assessing High School Students’ Computational Thinking And Participation Practices, Deborah A. Fields, Debora Lui, Yasmin Kafai, Gayithri Jayathirtha, Justice Walker, Mia Shaw

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Background and Context: While assessment of computational thinking concepts, practices, and perspectives is at the forefront of K-12 CS education, supporting student communication about computation has received relatively little attention.

Objective: To examine the usability of process-based portfolios for capturing students’ communication about their computational practices regarding the process of making electronic textile projects.

Method: We examined the portfolios of 248 high school students in 15 introductory CS classrooms from largely underserved communities, using a formal rubric (top-down) to code computational communication and an open-coding scheme (bottom-up) to identify computational practices described.

Findings: Students demonstrated stronger …

Communicating Computational Concepts And Practices Within High School Students’ Portfolios Of Making Electronic Textiles, Debora Lui, Justice T. Walker, Sheri Hanna, Yasmin B. Kafai, Deborah A. Fields, Gayithri Jayathirtha

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Portfolios have recently gained traction within computer science education as a way to assess students’ computational thinking and practices. Whereas traditional assessments such as exams tend to capture learning within artificial settings at a single point in time, portfolios provide more authentic opportunities to document a trajectory of students’ learning and practices in everyday contexts. Furthermore, because communication itself has been defined as an important computational thinking practice, portfolios give students a place to practice this skill in the classroom. In this study, we report on the implementation of a digital portfolio with a class of 21 high school students …

Encouraging Communication And Community Through Making Books About Shared Experiences, Lisa Boyce, Gina A. Cook, Lori A. Roggman, Vonda K. Jump Norman, Mark S. Innocenti

Course Materials

Classroom Storytelling to Enhance Language and Literacy Skills (C-SHELLS) is a guide for helping preschool children “write” books. C-SHELLS is designed to promote communication by using storytelling and book making activities to promote child language and literacy skills and community by helping culturally and linguistically diverse children engage with peers, understand classroom routines, and develop socially appropriate and regulated behaviors. C-SHELLS helps teachers engage children, get them talking, help them make friends, and increase their school readiness. C-SHELLS activities do this by helping children work together to make picture books based on shared classroom experiences. C-SHELLS uses a simple, fun, …