This thesis is about students’ approaches to learning (SAL) in computer science education. Since the initial development of SAL instruments and inventories in the 70’s, they have been used as a means to understand students’ approaches to learning better, as well as to measure and predict academic achievement (such as retention, grades and credits taken) and other correlating factors. It is an instrument to measure a student’s study strategies – not how “good” a student is. A Swedish short version of Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) was used to gather information on whether we, through context and content, encouraged sustainable study behaviour among our students. ASSIST was used in two distinct situations: 1) Evaluation and evolvement of an online programming course design, and 2) Engineering education in media technology and computer science in a campus environment where approaches to learning has been evaluated and studied over time during the five year long programmes. Repeated measurements have been analysed against factors predicting academic achievement, and have been evaluated on a cohort level (not individual) in order to clarify patterns rather than individual characteristics. Significant for both projects was that a surface approach to learning correlated negatively with retention. Students who adopted a combination of deep and strategic approach to learning performed better in terms of grades, ECTS credits completed and perceived value of the education. As part of developmental tools it can be beneficial to use ASSIST at a group level in order to see what kind of approach a course design or a programme supports among the students. / <p>QC 20161028</p>

Professional competencies are explicitly identified in the primary learning outcomes for science and engineering degrees at many tertiary institutions.  Fulfillment of the requirements to equip our students with these skills, while formally acknowledged as important by all stakeholders, can be hard to demonstrate in practice.  Most degree awarding institutions would have difficulties if asked to document where in degree programs such competencies are developed. The work in this thesis addresses the issue of professional competencies from several angles.  The Open-Ended Group Project (OEGP) concept is introduced and proposed as an approach to constructing learning environments in which students’ development of professional competencies can be stimulated and assessed.  Scholarly, research-based development of the IT in Society course unit (ITiS) is described and analyzed in order to present ideas for tailoring OEGP-based course units towards meeting learning objectives related to professional competence.  Work in this thesis includes an examination of both the meanings attributed to the term professional competencies, and methods which can be used to assess the competencies once they are agreed on. The empirical work on developing ITiS is based on a framework for educational research, which has been both refined and extended as an integral part of my research.  The action research methodology is presented and concrete examples of implementations of different pedagogical interventions, based on the methodology, are given.  The framework provides support for relating a theoretical foundation to studies, or development, of learning environments.  The particular theoretical foundation for the examples in this thesis includes, apart from the action research methodology, constructivism, conceptual change, threshold concepts, communities of practice, ill-structured problem solving, the reflective practicum, and problem based learning. The key finding in this thesis is that development and assessment of professional competencies is not a pipe dream.  Assessment can be accomplished, and the OEGP concept provides a flexible base for creating an appropriate learning environment for this purpose. / <p>Felaktigt tryckt som Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 738</p>

Computing education has struggled with student engagement and diversity in the student population for a long time. Research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education suggests that taking a social, long-term perspective on learning is a fruitful approach to resolving some of these persistent challenges. A longitudinal study has been conducted, following students from two computing study programmes (CS/IT) over a three-year period. The students reflected on their experiences with CS/IT in a series of interviews. Drawing on social identity theory, the analysis has focused on describing participation in CS/IT, doing, thinking, feeling in relation to CS/IT, as negotiated among different people. Phenomenographic analysis yields an outcome space that describes increasingly broad ways in which the students experience participation in CS/IT over the years. Two further outcome spaces provide nuanced insights into experiences that are of increasing relevance as the students advance in their studies; participation as problem solving and problem solving for others. Problem solving defined as solving difficult (technical) problems seems predominate in the learning environment. Problem solving for others brings the user into perspective, but first in the human computer interaction (HCI) course in year three. Students react with scepticism to HCI, excluding HCI from computing, some are students who commenced their studies with broader interests in computing. Demonstrating (technical) problem solving competence is the most vital indicator competence in the two study programmes and the students adapt their reflections on who they are as computing students and professionals accordingly. People showing broader interests in computing risk being marginalised. I identify a gap between conceptions of computing as interdisciplinary and important for society and constructions of computing as technical. Closing the gap could improve retention and diversity, and result in graduates that are better prepared to contribute to societal development.