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Folk Pedagogy and the Geek Gene: Geekiness Quotient

Published: 08 March 2017 Publication History

Abstract

In a survey of the CS-education community, we find a range of beliefs about the "geek gene" theory. We suggest an alternative term, the "geekiness quotient (GQ)". The GQ, grounded in Gardner's work on multiple intelligences, is a hypothetical measure of the student's current CS ability. The GQ supports a moderate view of the geek gene: that students arrive in our classrooms with a range of CS abilities, whether acquired through background or innate talent, and can improve their abilities through effort.

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  1. Folk Pedagogy and the Geek Gene: Geekiness Quotient

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    SIGCSE '17: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
    March 2017
    838 pages
    ISBN:9781450346986
    DOI:10.1145/3017680
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    Published: 08 March 2017

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    Author Tags

    1. fixed or growth mindset
    2. folk pedagogy
    3. geek gene
    4. innate ability

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    SIGCSE '17 Paper Acceptance Rate 105 of 348 submissions, 30%;
    Overall Acceptance Rate 1,787 of 5,146 submissions, 35%

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    • (2023)Cross-Country Variation in (Binary) Gender Differences in Secondary School Students’ CS Attitudes: Re-Validating and Generalizing a CS Attitudes ScaleACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/363001423:4(1-22)Online publication date: 23-Oct-2023
    • (2023)10 Things Software Developers Should Learn about LearningCommunications of the ACM10.1145/358485967:1(78-87)Online publication date: 21-Dec-2023
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