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Improving Content Learning and Student Perceptions in CS1 with Scrumage

Published: 05 March 2021 Publication History

Abstract

Scrumage (SCRUM for AGile Education) is a recently proposed classroom management technique in which students are given autonomy to choose individually from a variety of pedagogies (e.g., traditional lectures, active learning, a flipped-based ap-proach, etc.). The result is multiple simultaneous pedagogical styles in a single course. In this paper we present the results of comparing six sections of an introductory programming course at the same university, three of which used Scrumage and three of which took a traditional approach. We adminis-tered surveys of both content acquisition and learning atti-tudes at the beginning and end of the course. While students in all sections improved in content learning, the students in the Scrumage classrooms outperformed those in the traditional sections. The improvement in content learning was also more uniformly distributed among students, not limited to the high achievers. Scrumage students showed generally improved atti-tudes about learning after the course, especially in the areas of Effort Regulation (perseverance in problem solving) and Con-trol of Learning (taking responsibility for learning success). We observed some correlation between this metalearning and improvements in content scores in the Scrumage sections, but not in the traditional sections. Finally, based on an analysis of student comments in the Scrumage sections, we show that as the course progressed, positive student comments about their abilities and confidence were more common, even as course material became more difficult. We believe that positive atti-tude changes we saw with Scrumage mean it has potential for widening the retention of students in Computer Science.

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Cited By

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  • (2024)Identifying critical self-regulated learning skills: a Delphi process studyComputer Science Education10.1080/08993408.2024.2382631(1-28)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
  • (2023)Toward CS1 Content Subscales: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of an Introductory Computing AssessmentProceedings of the 23rd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/3631802.3631828(1-13)Online publication date: 13-Nov-2023
  • (2023)Improving Student Motivation by UngradingProceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3545945.3569747(631-637)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2023
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cover image ACM Conferences
SIGCSE '21: Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
March 2021
1454 pages
ISBN:9781450380621
DOI:10.1145/3408877
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 05 March 2021

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Author Tags

  1. classroom management
  2. computing education
  3. pedagogy
  4. scrum

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Overall Acceptance Rate 1,787 of 5,146 submissions, 35%

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Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Identifying critical self-regulated learning skills: a Delphi process studyComputer Science Education10.1080/08993408.2024.2382631(1-28)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
  • (2023)Toward CS1 Content Subscales: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of an Introductory Computing AssessmentProceedings of the 23rd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/3631802.3631828(1-13)Online publication date: 13-Nov-2023
  • (2023)Improving Student Motivation by UngradingProceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3545945.3569747(631-637)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2023
  • (2023)Scrum in the Classroom: An Implementation Guide2023 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE58773.2023.10343213(01-08)Online publication date: 18-Oct-2023
  • (2022)Metacognition and Self-Regulation in Programming Education: Theories and Exemplars of UseACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/348705022:4(1-31)Online publication date: 15-Sep-2022
  • (2021)Uses, Revisions, and the Future of Validated Assessments in Computing Education: A Case Study of the FCS1 and SCS1Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research10.1145/3446871.3469744(60-68)Online publication date: 16-Aug-2021

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