Year: 2014
Type: dissertation
Study design: Clinical Trial
Abstract: Computer Science 1 (CS1) is the first Computer Science (CS) course taken by those interested in post-secondary CS study. The research community has long lamented high failure rates that seem to be common across schools and countries. In addition, much research over the past several decades suggests that students are not learning what we hope for them to learn.In this thesis, I investigate Peer Instruction (PI) as a new pedagogical approach for teaching CS1. PI is an active learning pedagogy developed by physics education researchers where students discuss conceptual material in groups and respond to questions using clickers. PI has been taken up by CS educators in the past few years.I begin by identifying the components of PI and how they might be appropriated to a CS (rather than physics) context. I then offer a quasi-experiment of a PI class and a lecture class: a ``learning competition'' to determine which pedagogical approach wins. I use a variety of outcome measures, in addition to grade, to gain a deeper understanding into the effect that the pedagogical shift has on particular types of students. I find that students in the PI section score 4.4% higher on a common final exam than students in the lecture section. Though this is substantial in terms of grades, the non-significant statistical result means that we cannot infer that similar gains can be expected in other situations. In addition, PI increases students' self-efficacy (a construct known to be closely linked to performance accomplishment and persistence) and enjoyment. Further, using achievement goal theory, I show that PI increases interest for those students oriented toward interpersonal achievement but not for those oriented toward intrapersonal improvement. Taken together, my findings offer evidence for the utility of PI as a CS1 pedagogy that not only leads to better grades but also to enhanced sociocognitive and socioemotional investment.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Daniel Zingaro
Language: English
Topic: Innovative Teaching Methods
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2696622629