Computing at the high school level: Changing what teachers and students know and believe

Abstract

Research indicates that students often opt out of computing majors due to a lack of prior experience in computing and a lack of knowledge of field-based job opportunities. In addition, it has been found that students respond positively to new subjects when teachers and counselors are enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the area. The summer program described here is designed to improve high school students, teachers and guidance counselors understanding of the opportunities available in computing related fields, specifically information technology through a summer enrichment experience. The hypothesis of this work is that by exposing teachers and counselors to professional development in this field, their attitudes, beliefs and knowledge regarding information technology will be enhanced, thus impacting students’ attitudes (both attending the program and beyond) with respect to information technology and their desire to pursue degrees in this area. Results indicate that the design of this summer program enhanced the knowledge and interest of high school students with respect to information technology. Teachers’ knowledge was also positively influenced. Further refinements are necessary in the design of this program to improve the experiences of guidance counselors.

Introduction

As a result of declining enrollments over the past five years in high school computer science programs, there has been a decrease in the percentage of high schools which offer introductory computer science courses (78%–65%). This lack of enrollment has further led to the College Board cancelling the Advanced Placement Computer Science AB course. (Chandler, 2009) It is well documented that there is a shortage in the number of students who select to pursue and eventually complete computing degrees at the college level, and many students who initially choose to pursue a computing related major change paths after one or two semesters of college study. (Foster, 2005, National Science Foundation, 2006, Patterson, 2005, Reges, 2006) It has been established that a lack of computing experience obtained during high school or earlier can lead to high attrition in these majors at the college level. (Barker et al., 2009, Dabbagh and Menasce, 2006, Hutchison et al., 2006, Sloan and Troy, 2008) Thus, the lack of interest in computing at the high school level raises the concern as to whether there will be a sufficient number of graduates who are trained computing professionals to fill the future employment demand in an economy that relies strongly on technology. (Chandler, 2009) This lack of qualified students in the computing field can in part be attributed to students’ lack of preparation and experience at the high school level. One manner to combat this issue is through the use of summer workshops, where high school students, teachers and guidance counselors are exposed to computing and its career prospects. This type of program impacts some students directly while impacting a broader population of students indirectly through their teachers and guidance counselors. This paper describes such a workshop, known as Surprising Possibilities Imagined and Realized through Information Technology (SPIRIT), whose framework is guided by literature indicating that programs of this nature may broaden the pipeline of students interested in computing careers.

A concern within computing is providing high school students with computing experience before they enter college. Some researchers have argued that the reason for the decreasing number of computing majors is a lack of awareness on the part of students as to the diverse job opportunities available in computing. (Cantrell and Ewing-Taylor, 2009, Papastergiou, 2008) These misconceptions have been shown to pervade even after students have entered college and completed college level computing courses. (Trytten, Walden, & Rhoads, 2005) Many students are convinced that computing degrees result in desk jobs which require little or no innovation or creativity. (Galpin & Sanders, 2007) Furthermore, high school teachers can have a significant impact on students’ attitudes with respect to all subjects, including computing. (Barker et al., 2009, Brophy et al., 2008, Tillberg and McGrath Cohoon, 2005) Most high school teachers, including those who are trained in mathematics and science subjects which are closely aligned with computing, are ill-prepared to introduce computing topics to their students. (Chumbley et al., 2002, Yasar et al., 2006) One approach to addressing this issue, drawn from the computing and engineering education literature, is through summer workshops. Such an approach has been found to increase both students’ interests and confidence in the subject. (Chumbley et al., 2002, Conley et al., 2000, Felix and Harris, 2010, LoPresti et al., 2010, The Eric Pitman Annual Summer Workshop in Computational Sciences, 2010, Rursch et al., 2010, Symans, 2000, Tangney et al., 2010, Tsai et al., 2008)

The most common version of the summer workshop is offering professional development experiences to practicing teachers with the secondary goal of impacting students. (Conley et al., 2000, Moskal et al., 2007) One example of such a workshop is Project Excel, a one day teacher workshop that targeted K-12 teachers in Iowa. This workshop provided instruction in science and technology, and supported teachers as they gained the confidence and knowledge necessary to increase the science and technology explored in the classroom. (Chumbley et al., 2002) A similar approach was used at Saint Francis University. This program offered a two week summer workshop to high school teachers which focused on the science disciplines. This included science education and its motivation, hands-on presentations and lectures by guest speakers, and lesson plan creation. (Felix & Harris, 2010)

A more direct approach is to target the interests of K-12 students without the participation of teachers. (The Eric Pitman Annual Summer Workshop in Computational Sciences, 2010, Rursch et al., 2010, Tangney et al., 2010) A limitation of these programs is that researchers must work with cohorts of students one at a time whereas training teachers has the potential of a multiplier effect, impacting many cohorts of students over several years. An example of a student centered approach is the Eric Pitman Annual Summer Workshop in Computational Sciences. The goal of this workshop is to introduce high school students to computer modeling and simulation by applying programming as a means of solving problems drawn from other scientific fields. (Pitman 2010) Another example, designed by Symans (2000), targets only 8th grade students in Pullman, WA. This week long program uses bridge design software to encourage K-12 interest in engineering. In a student program developed by Tangney, a two-dimensional animation software, Scratch, is taught to second-level students in the U.K. over a three and a half day workshop. (Tangney et al., 2010) The IT-Adventures program provides yet another example, one which is implemented after school. This program seeks to increase the awareness of high school students concerning the opportunities available in Information Technology. (Rursch et al., 2010)

Other programs have been designed which include both teachers and students. For example, the Electrical Engineering Summer Academy in Tulsa, OK, was offered in 2007 and 2008. (LoPresti et al., 2010) Participating teachers attended a weeklong training workshop immediately prior to a weeklong student program. Through the training, the teachers gained instructional knowledge that they used to assist the academy directors in the instruction of the student program. The academy directors also worked with the participating teachers to ensure that the workshop information would be used in the participating teachers’ classrooms during the following academic year. A similar design was used by Cooper et al. (2007–2010) and was offered to middle school and high school teachers and students in multiple states. In this program, participating teachers attended a two-week summer workshop and provided instruction to middle school and high school students during the one-week student workshop that followed. The goal of this program was to improve both teachers and students’ knowledge and interests in computing.

Summer workshops may help to increase high school teachers’ and students’ interest in computing but once students have developed this interest, efforts are also needed to sustain that interest. Another known factor that influences students’ desire to pursue and persist in computing degrees is their experiences in introductory programming courses, both at the high school and college level. Students completing introductory programming courses at the college level who have not had prior programming experience often become intimidated by their more experienced peers, leading to attrition. (Barker et al., 2009, Dabbagh and Menasce, 2006, Hutchison et al., 2006, Sloan and Troy, 2008) A major challenge of programming is learning computing concepts simultaneously with the syntax of the programming language. (Duplantis, MacGregor, Klawe, & Ng, 2002) It is well known that novice programmers struggle with syntax errors in their programs and often incorrectly believe these to be errors in their logic. This leads to frustration and potentially dropping the course. (Connolly et al., 2009, Treu and Skinner, 2002) One means of combating this early attrition due to programming frustration is the Alice approach, a means of teaching introductory programming skills using the Alice software. Alice is a programming environment that allows novices to create animations through a drag-drop programming editor, removing the issue of syntax errors. (Alice 2010)

Surprising Possibilities Imagined and Realized through Information Technology (SPIRIT) is a National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored grant (Harriger, Dunsmore, & Lutes, 2008–2011) and is based out of Purdue University under the direction of Alka Harriger. This program includes a summer workshop that integrates professional development for high school teachers and counselors with educational development for high school students in the field of Information Technology. (Harriger 2009) The focus of this research investigation is the impact of a summer program on participants’ attitudes and knowledge about information technology.

The research which has been previously discussed indicates that summer workshops are often used to influence the beliefs, knowledge and attitudes of teachers in information technology with the assumption that this will in turn influence the development of positive student attitudes toward the field. Based on this prior research, students are likely to display improved attitudes toward computing as a potential career if: i) students are provided with positive, professional role models as their knowledge of information technology develops and ii) students experience programming in a fun and successful learning environment. Our model of the school-based factors that influence the development of a positive attitude toward information technology among high school students, which is supported by the previously discussed literature, is depicted in Fig. 1. This model includes high school guidance counselors since their jobs entail advising high school students during the career selection process. Based on this model, high school teachers’ and guidance counselors’ attitudes, beliefs and knowledge impact their classroom behaviors which influences students development of attitudes, beliefs and knowledge toward computing. Students also need positive experiences within computing as well as positive professional role models in order to develop a positive attitude toward computing. The SPIRIT program was designed to improve students’ knowledge and attitudes toward information technology by attending to the various components of the proposed school based factors.

SPIRIT includes high school teachers, guidance counselors, and students in a summer program. Through this summer program, a positive programming experience is facilitated through the use of the Alice software. (Bishop-Clark et al., 2007, Hutchinson et al., 2008b, Hutchinson et al., 2008a, Moskal et al., 2004)

Information sessions which take place during the second week of the program are designed to both introduce professional role models to the participants, as well as provide insight to the participants with respect to the many facets of information technology careers. In this paper, we focus on measuring change in the teachers, counselors and students attitudes, beliefs and knowledge with respect to computing, a component of the larger proposed model. The opinions and ideas expressed in this article are that of the authors and do not necessarily reflect that of the NSF.