College of Education
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item SWITCH MODE: SCAFFOLD LEARNERS FROM BLOCK-BASED PROGRAMMING TO TEXT-BASED PROGRAMMING(2024) Lin, Yuhan; Weintrop, David; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Block-based programming environments have become increasingly commonplace in computer science education. Despite a rapidly expanding ecosystem of block-based programming environments, text-based languages remain the dominant programming paradigm outside of educational contexts, motivating the transition from block-based to text-based programming. Supporting students in transitioning from block-based to text-based programming is an important and open design question. This dissertation presents the design and evaluation of a novel hybrid programming environment, Switch mode, to scaffold learners from block-based to text-based programming.Switch mode blocks allow learners to write text-based commands inside of blocks within a conventional block-based programming environment. Switch mode blocks can be added by either directly drag-and-dropping them into a program or by right clicking a block and converting it into a Switch mode block. This scaffolded approach can support learners in transitioning from block-based programming to text-based programming. This dissertation understands students’ perception and how they author in Switch mode. Findings from coding activities presents an analysis of the eight distinct strategies that learners developed to compose programs using Switch mode blocks. This categorization of programming strategies contributes to our understanding of how we can design environments that support students of varying levels of prior experience and confidence in transitioning from introductory (block-based) to more powerful (text-based) programming modalities. Findings from the classroom study shows how novices were able to smoothly move from block-based to text-based programming with the help of Switch mode blocks. The case study on the differing experiences of two students with differing prior programming experiences shows how Switch mode supported both students and helped them find their level of comfort with programming. This dissertation demonstrates the potential of hybrid programming environments that can support learners in developing distinct programming approaches suited to their confidence, preference, and previous experiences. Collectively this work contributes to our understanding of the hybrid programming environment and can be used to inform the tools that will scaffold the next generation of learners. This work will help prepare learners to excel in a computationally driving world.Item How Electrical Engineering Students Design Computer Programs(2014) Danielak, Brian Adam; Elby, Andrew; Gupta, Ayush; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)When professional programmers begin designing programs, we know they often spend time away from a computer, using tools such as pens, paper, and whiteboards as they discuss and plan their designs (Petre, van der Hoek, & Baker, 2010). But, we're only beginning to analyze and understand the complexity of what happens during such early-stage design work. And, our accounts are almost exclusively about what professionals do. For all we've begun to understand about what happens in early-stage software design, we rarely apply the same research questions and methods to students' early-stage design work. This dissertation tries to redress that imbalance. I present two case studies — derived from my 10 study participants — of electrical engineering (EE) students designing computer programs in a second-semester computer programming course. In study 1, I show how analyzing a student's code snapshot history and conducting clinical interviews tells us far more about her design trajectory than either method could alone. From that combined data I argue students' overall software designs can be consequentially shaped by factors — such as students' stances toward trusting their code or believing a current problem is a new instance of an old one — that existing code snapshot research is poorly equipped to explain. Rather, explanations that add non-conceptual constructs including affective state and epistemological stance can offer a more complete and satisfactory account of students' design activities. In study 2, I argue computer science and engineering education should move beyond conceptual-knowledge and concept deficit explanations of students' difficulties (and capabilities) in programming. I show that in doing design students do, say, write, and gesture things that: – Are outside the phenomenological scope of most (mis)conceptions accounts of programming – Would be explained differently under frameworks that emphasize manifold epistemological resources. Some student difficulties can be recast as epistemological blocks in activity rather than conceptual knowledge deficits. Similarly, some students' productive capacities can be understood as epistemologically-related stances toward an activity, rather than evidencing particular knowledge of specific computational concepts. – Would suggest different instructional interventions if teachers attended to the stabilizing aspects — such as epistemological dynamics — that help these episodes of activity cohere for students.