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Increasing Parental Involvement in Computer Science Education Through the Design and Development of Family Creative Computing Workshops

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Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2019)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1220))

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Abstract

The importance of parental involvement (PI) in education is well established. However, the growth of CS Education at K12 level in recent years has raised questions about parents’ confidence and competence in engaging in this area with their children because of their own lack of CS knowledge and skills. This paper outlines the development and evaluation of family workshops designed to increase parental confidence and competence in partaking of CS activities with their primary-school aged children (5–13). A number of design principles were identified through a comprehensive needs analysis leading to the development of a model for family creative-computing workshops.

The evaluation aimed primarily to investigate the effect of the strategy on the participants’ confidence in partaking in creative computing activities with their families. Positive results were found for the sample investigated in whom the mean confidence level rose significantly. Participants reported satisfaction with and enjoyment of the strategy, particularly the inter-family collaboration and the creation of concrete artefacts. Confidence in their ability to organise such activities also rose significantly and a number of the participating families went on to do so. The identification and evaluation of the design principles for family CS activities as well as the workshop model should be of interest to other researchers and practitioners interested in improving PI in CS Education.

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Acknowledgements

This research is funded by Science Foundation Ireland and administered by the National Parents Council (Primary) in partnership with the School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin. Workshops have been supported by Microsoft Ireland.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Nina Bresnihan, Glenn Strong, Lorraine Fisher & Richard Millwood

  2. National Parents Council (Primary), Dublin, Ireland

    Áine Lynch

Authors
  1. Nina Bresnihan
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  2. Glenn Strong
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  3. Lorraine Fisher
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  4. Richard Millwood
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  5. Áine Lynch
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Glenn Strong .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    H. Chad Lane

  2. Anderson Academic Commons, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Susan Zvacek

  3. School of Engineering, University of Ulster, Newtownabbey, UK

    James Uhomoibhi

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Bresnihan, N., Strong, G., Fisher, L., Millwood, R., Lynch, Á. (2020). Increasing Parental Involvement in Computer Science Education Through the Design and Development of Family Creative Computing Workshops. In: Lane, H.C., Zvacek, S., Uhomoibhi, J. (eds) Computer Supported Education. CSEDU 2019. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1220. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58459-7_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58459-7_23

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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