Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF A COMPUTATIONAL THINKING MODULE FOR MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE METHODS COURSES(2024) Moon, Peter; Walkoe, Janet; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Computational thinking (CT) has great potential for enhancing mathematics and science lessons in K-12 education. Numerous studies demonstrate that under the right circumstances, CT integration in math and science can improve student learning and promote deeper understanding. However, teacher education currently does not include preparation for using CT in the classroom on a widespread scale. Instead, most current CT courses or professional development (PD) opportunities for teachers are taught by a local CT researcher who can only reach a limited number of teachers. This qualitative three-article dissertation summarizes the development, implementation, and effects of a five-lesson module on CT designed to be integrated within a math & science methods course or a similar course for teachers. The goal of this module is to provide learning about CT within most teacher education programs without substantially affecting that program’s requirements for teachers (i.e., adding a new course). In Study 1, “Module Implementation in a Mathematics and Science Methods Course,” I describe the module activities, the CT knowledge of the teacher candidates who participated in the study, and how that knowledge evolved. I argue that participants’ understanding of CT expanded from a limited scope to a wide variety of practices and skills, and that the experience-first design helped them build knowledge of CT as distinct from knowledge of their discipline. In Study 2, “Use of CT Knowledge as Classroom Teachers,” I discuss sets of interviews with two teachers who had previously participated in the CT module in different years, analyzing commonalities and differences in their organization and use of CT knowledge. I argue that the Preparation for Future Learning (PFL) (Bransford & Schwartz, 1999) perspective is particularly important when considering the impact of the CT module. In Study 3, “A Faculty Workshop on CT Implementation with Mathematics and Science Methods Courses,” I discuss the effects of a summer workshop with methods instructors from universities throughout Maryland, noting different perspectives around what “counts” as a CT activity, and two implementation profiles for CT that instructors used that fall. I argue that the PFL perspective is important to consider for methods instructors’ CT integration.Item How Can Debugging With Physical Computing Be More Playful For Children?(2024) Zeng, Danyi; Williams-Pierce, Caro; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In response to the ongoing call for the education of computational thinking, I explored how debugging activities in a physical computing environment can be more playful and learnable for children. While a lot of studies have addressed the importance of debugging in generic programming learning, the benefits and challenges of physical computing implementation in classrooms, or the potential of playfulness in STEM education, few research focused on an interdisciplinary conversation that sought design solutions to bring playfulness into the learning experience and to improve the user experience cohesively. In this study, based on a synthetical understanding of the relevant studies from computer science, human-computer interaction, and education, I situated the concept of fragile knowledge into the complex, multiple-object environment of physical computing. Accordingly, I designed two debugging projects on micro:bit for 8 participants at KidsTeam at the University of Maryland to understand their intuitive approaches to debugging in the physical computing environment. I analyzed the video data of the two 90-minute sessions and applied semantic coding to examine and compare the participants’ earning experiences, including typical progress and failures. The qualitative findings revealed: 1) the differentiation in the process of debugging between the first-time and returning learners of programming, 2) the participants’ passion for customizing after success by upgrading their projects or testing the limit of the physical chip, and 3) two forms of spontaneous collaborations. Across those experiences, I further identified the failures without feedback caused by the micro:bit’s current coding environment and extended Fish Tanks and Sandboxes, two playful learning principles, to provide design insights for future physical debugging activities that support the findings above.Item COMPUTATIONAL THINKING IN THE ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM: HOW TEACHERS APPROPRIATE CT FOR SCIENCE INSTRUCTION(2021) Cabrera, Lautaro; Clegg, Tamara; Jass Ketelhut, Diane; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Researchers and policymakers call for the integration of Computational Thinking (CT) into K-12 education to prepare students to participate in a society and workforce increasingly influenced by computational devices, algorithms, and methods. One avenue to meet this goal is to prepare teachers to integrate CT into elementary science education, where students can use CT by leveraging computing concepts to support scientific investigations. This study leverages data from a professional development (PD) series where teachers learned about CT, co-designed CT-integrated science lessons, implemented one final lesson plan in their classrooms, and reflected on their experience. This study aims to understand how teachers learned about CT and integrated it into their classroom, a process conceptualized as appropriation of CT (Grossman et al., 1999). This dissertation has two parts. The first investigates how teachers appropriated CT through inductive and deductive qualitative analyses of various data sources from the PD. The findings suggest that most teachers appropriated the labels of CT or only Surface features of CT as a pedagogical tool but did so in different ways. These differences are presented as five different profiles of appropriation that differ in how teachers described the activities that engage students in CT, ascribed goals to CT integration, and use technology tools for CT engagement. The second part leverages interviews with a subset of teachers aimed at capturing the relationship between appropriation of CT during the PD and the subsequent year. The cases of these five teachers suggest that appropriation styles were mostly consistent in the year after the PD. However, the cases detail how constraints in autonomy to make instructional decisions about science curriculum and evolving needs from students can greatly impact CT integration. Taken together, the findings of the dissertation suggest that social context plays an overarching role in impacting appropriation, with conceptual understanding and personal characteristics coming into play when the context for CT integration is set. The dissertation includes discussions around implications for PD designers, such as a call for reframing teacher knowledge and beliefs as part of a larger context impacting CT integration into schools.