S. Monisha Pulimood
Kim Pearson
Abstract
Which pedagogical techniques better engage computer science (CS) students in computing for social good? We examine this question with students enrolled in classes using the Collaborating Across Boundaries to Engage Undergraduates in Computational Thinking (CABECT) pedagogical model, that pairs CS and non-CS courses with a community partner to propose solutions to a local problem. Pre- and post-tests of self-assessed concerns about civic responsibility, global responsibility, and local civic efficacy were administered to the students in a three-year long pedagogical experiment, which paired five CS courses with five journalism courses. While CS students were not statistically different from their journalism peers in pre-test measures of social and global responsibility, they lagged behind in local efficacy. In the posttest, CS students had significantly increased their sense of local efficacy to the extent that they were statistically indistinguishable from journalism students. Community-engaged learning projects, such as the one in the CABECT model, show great potential for attracting students to computing for social good.
- Bobek, D., Zaff, J., Li, Y., and Lerner R.M. (2009) Cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components of civic action: Towards an integrated measure of civic engagement. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 30(5): 615--27.Google Scholar
Cross Ref
- Lerner, P.M., Lerner, J.V., Almerigi, J., Theokas, C. Phelps, E., Gestodottir, S. et al (2005) Positive youth development, participation in community youth development programs, and community contributions of fifth grade adolescents: Findings from the first wave of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development. Journal of Early Adolescence 25 (1): 17--71.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Mabry, J. B. (1998) Pedagogical variations and student outcomes in servicelearning: How time, contact, and reflection matter. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning 5: 32--47.Google Scholar
- Pearson, Kim, Monisha Pulimood, and Diane Bates. 2017. Collaborating Across Boundaries to Engage Journalism Students in Computational Thinking. Teaching Journalism and Mass Communications 6, 1: 77--91.Google Scholar
- Pulimood, S.M., Pearson, K. and Bates, D. C. 2016. A Study on the Impact of Multidisciplinary Collaboration on Computational Thinking. In Proc. of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (ACM SIGCSE), Memphis, TN, March 2 -- 5, 2016. Joint Task Force on Computing Criteria (2013). Computer Science Curricula 2013, https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2534860. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Encouraging CS students to compute for social good through collaborative, community-engaged projects
Recommendations
CS+Social Good: building a curricular ecosystem for impact at stanford and beyond
This submission introduces CS+Social Good, a student organization at Stanford University, which works at the intersection of tech and social impact. In this paper, we introduce one of our educational initiatives that might be of interest to the SIGCSE ...
Computing for Social Good on Your Campus
SIGCSE 2022: Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2Computing for social good is an expanding focus for many computing departments. For some, computing for social good aligns with their missions, while for others it is a way to broaden students' views of the field. Having students work on an issue on ...
Encouraging Women to Become CS Teachers
GenderIT '15: Proceedings of the Third Conference on GenderITPrevious research suggested a relationship between teachers' and students' attitudes towards a subject area. In order to increase female representation in Computer Science (CS), we need female teachers who have positive attitudes and can provide role ...
Comments