Creating a Computer Science and Software Engineering Department that supports students with diverse identities and backgrounds is essential to creating a computing workforce that reflects the world at large. Inspired by the work of Metcalf et al.'s survey conducted at the University of Illinois, we use the same methods to examine the state of our computing department with respect to issues of inclusive climate and student sense of belonging, which have been shown to be important for retention in STEM fields. We use the four areas that contribute to belonging based on the work of Rainey et al. along with a fifth category of learning environment in order to assess our students' sense of belonging. This paper's main focus is based on results from two surveys of Cal Poly Students conducted exactly one year apart (2019: n=154, 2020: n=122). Both surveys were sent to all computing majors in Spring quarter, the last quarter of the regular academic year. We found that 58-68\% of students felt they were not typical computer scientists, which mirrors the results of the survey conducted at the University of Illinois, indicating that the lack of belonging is perhaps a ubiquitous problem within the field of computing. Other salient results include identifying the presence of statistically significant differences for some groups based on gender and race & ethnicity. These differences were found when looking at students' senses of their science identity and learning environment. We also found that women had a significantly greater chance of having strong interpersonal relationships within computing. The survey results are augmented by a survey of first-quarter freshmen in Fall 2019 (n=44) and student interviews conducted in Spring 2021 (n=15). We hope that the addition of these results explain and expand upon our main results and add insight as to how the student experience can evolve from a student's first quarter onward. These differences shine an important light on some positive trends as well as several concerning differences to be examined in our quest to create a diverse and equitable department.

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Children's reasoning and learning about levers and simple machines were investigated in this study. The study included several cycles of design, test and clinical interview tutoring sessions and the two final cycles are presented here. The methodology combined the use of qualitative clinical interviewing data and quantitative summative data: quantitative evaluations provided an overview of the lessons' effects, while qualitative, formative lesson evaluations allowed deeper insights into learning and reasoning processes. Three groups of participants were interviewed about the pretest, lesson and posttest. The pre- and posttests were standardized, and several new and widespread misconceptions about levers have been discovered that are less accurate or general than conventional conceptions. In experiment 1 the pre-posttest comparison between the control group and experimental group 1 showed that there were no differences and the instruction in experiment 2 was revised considerably as a result of the formative evaluation findings. Significant improvements were apparent for experimental group 2 with regard to conceptual change and for transfer when compared with experimental group 1--evident in group 2 students' ability to transfer their acquired knowledge to complex and compound levers and in conceptual changes apparent in simple levers questions. Lesson 1 was essentially a bridging lesson where "intuitive anchoring" examples were extended analogically via intermediate bridging cases to a target situation. The findings from lesson 1 suggested that reasoning from extreme case situations of levers might be instructionally useful, and this hypothesis was confirmed by results from experiment 2, where the instructional sequences based on extreme case reasoning proved to be powerful facilitators of the construction of mechanistic models by the students that fostered conceptual change and learning. The following directions for further research are suggested: students' conceptual models have implications for teaching and learning that are poorly understood at this stage, and research on instruction that employs experts' non-formal reasoning strategies should be encouraged.

Thesis advisor: Michael George Barnett / Computer science literacy is the key to surviving and thriving in the digital era. Unfortunately, given the negative stereotypes about who does computer science related work and what such work entails, many individuals are dissuaded from learning more about computer science and lack belief in their competence in computer science. As such, this dissertation aims to identify ways to make computer science education more self-efficacious using three connected studies, including (1) a mixed methods study on an intervention project for non-STEM major college students, (2) a practitioner study on a novel curriculum for middle school students, and (3) a study on the internal structure of a novel concept inventory for AI concepts. Findings from the first study confirm the importance of providing learners with mastery experiences in terms of helping them developing self-efficacy in coding. Findings from the second study provide teachers with teaching tips they could use while teaching the AI curriculum in their classrooms. Findings from the third study reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the AI concept inventory in accurately measuring respondents’ knowledge about AI. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

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Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The Problem: The study was designed to determine whether or not fifth and sixth grade children achieve and retain both the factual materials and their applications better when a unit in electricity and magnetism is taught by the inductive method than when it is taught by the lecture-demonstration technique. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that with respect to the achievement of concept-understandings and their applications of the content of a unit in electricity and magnetism, the lecture-demonstration instructions are slightly superior to the inductive method procedure, particularly when girls are involved. For delayed retention, the type of instructional method employed makes very little difference. [TRUNCATED] / 2031-01-01

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2999-01-01