Renee McCauley | College of Charleston (original) (raw)

Papers by Renee McCauley

ACM Transactions on Computing Education, Nov 30, 2017

Student-centered instructional practices structure a class so that students interact with each ot... more Student-centered instructional practices structure a class so that students interact with each other, engage deeply with the content, and receive formative feedback. These evidence-based practices benefit all students but are particularly effective with underrepresented learners, including women and members of other minority groups. To what extent have computer science (CS) faculty embraced these strategies? We surveyed over 700 U.S. faculty to find out. Results suggest that female faculty, associate professors, and those teaching courses with enrollment above 80 students are more likely to use these student-centered practices. Across all responses, 20% of faculty use student-student interaction on a regular basis during class. In contrast, 38% of faculty rely on lectures for content delivery. Results were also compared with published data for other academic disciplines. CS faculty are less likely to use these practices compared to their non-STEM colleagues but more likely to use these practices compared to other STEM discipline faculty. Overall, CS faculty have adopted student-centered practices to some degree, but our community should strive for higher adoption rates to help as many students as possible learn and remain in computer science.

SIGCSE bulletin, Mar 4, 2009

SIGCSE bulletin, Apr 14, 2016

Every three years we elect a new SIGCSE Board. The Board drives all SIGCSE activities, which incl... more Every three years we elect a new SIGCSE Board. The Board drives all SIGCSE activities, which includes approving conference locations and leaders, special projects and speaker funding, budget expenditures, and much more. We are fortunate to have a fabulous slate of dedicated SIGCSE members, who have offered their services to our community for the next three years.

This paper reports on a study of goal-plans and errors produced by students who wrote recursive s... more This paper reports on a study of goal-plans and errors produced by students who wrote recursive solutions for a binary tree operation. This work extends a previous study of difficulties CS2 students experienced while writing solutions on paper-based exams. In this study, participants solved the same recursive binary tree problem as part of a hands-on computer-based exam where students had access to an IDE and Java API documentation. Not surprisingly, students who took the computer-based exams were more successful than those who took the paper-based exams (58% vs. 17% correct solutions). However, even with the advantage of access to an IDE, documentation, and test cases, 42% of students taking the computer-based exam still made errors, indicating that students exhibit persistent errors even with support. The most common errors observed included incorrect calculations, missing method calls and missing and incorrect base cases.

This panel will discuss a variety of applications of peer (or cooperative) learning to the introd... more This panel will discuss a variety of applications of peer (or cooperative) learning to the introductory computer science curriculum. The participants are part of a group of educators from various institutions who are using peer learning in their classroom. This work was initiated by a NSF supported workshop in the Summer, 1996. In addition to developing peer learning activities, the workshop group also discussed evaluation of these activities at the various institutions. Discussion on evaluation will be included in the panel presentation. More information on the project, specific activities and assessment can be found at the Web site http://cs.api.edu/'peercs.

ABSTRACT We present what students say about their preferred learning style to succeed in introduc... more ABSTRACT We present what students say about their preferred learning style to succeed in introductory programming. Using the Felder-Silverman learning styles, students contrasted the 'best' learning style for programming with the 'best' for learning mathematics. Overall students believe that while they learn mathematics using a reflective style, learning to program is significantly more active. They also believe learning mathematics has a strong verbal component, whereas learning programming is primarily visual.

SIGCSE bulletin, Dec 1, 1997

ABSTRACT

We collected advice on how to succeed at learning to program from 164 CS1 students at 3 instituti... more We collected advice on how to succeed at learning to program from 164 CS1 students at 3 institutions during a "saying is believing" intervention designed to encourage a growth mindset. More students gave general advice (63%) than programming-specific (23%) or attitudinal advice (34%), despite being prompted to encourage future students to develop a growth mindset toward programming. Advice categories and quotes offer educators insights into student beliefs and practices and suggest a framework for considering how best to advise students. We discuss the implications of students offering advice to other students and provide a handout of representative advice intended for distribution to students in introductory programming courses.

Many research studies show students benefit from instructional practices that promote student int... more Many research studies show students benefit from instructional practices that promote student interaction within the classroom. However, recent prominent reports suggest many instructors still rely on lecture as their dominant classroom activity. This paper reports on a survey of U.S. computer science teaching practices. Responses indicate many CS instructors use student-centered instructional practices but evidence suggests students would benefit from additional use of these practices. Twenty percent of CS instructors report "student-centered activities" are prominent in their classroom. CS instructors are more likely to use student-centered practices than those in other science disciplines but less likely to do so than colleagues in non-science fields. Female CS instructors are more likely to structure their courses around student-centered practices than their male colleagues.

Computer Science Education, 2018

Computing in the Arts (CITA) is an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts degree program, which integ... more Computing in the Arts (CITA) is an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts degree program, which integrates computer science with art theory and practice. We present a 6-year study that explores the impact of the CITA degree on broadening participation. We find that CITA attracts a different student population than traditional computer science degrees. We find that it attracts and retains almost twice as many female students as a traditional computer science degree. Finally, we find that it graduates approximately equal numbers of female and male students. The CITA curriculum maintains its strong computer science character, as it contains several core computer science courses and traditional upper-level computer science courses. We introduce the CITA curriculum model, which combines computer science courses, art courses and several structured synthesis experiences. We show that creating a CITA-like degree is fairly inexpensive, as the curriculum mostly reuses existing courses.

Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 2019

Increasing gender balance in computing is widely recognized by academic institutions, industry, a... more Increasing gender balance in computing is widely recognized by academic institutions, industry, and government agencies as an imperative. This paper describes how providing opportunities for creative expression early on and throughout the four years of an undergraduate computing degree achieves this goal. Prior studies have demonstrated that opportunity for creative expression has a positive effect on recruitment and retention of women, while conversely, lack of opportunity for creative expression has a negative effect. We describe our approach, integrated into a fourcourse sequence combining computing and the arts, so that other institutions may consider adopting it. Results of a six-year longitudinal study show that these courses attract, retain, and graduate 46% female students, while the corresponding number in our ABET-accredited Computer Science curriculum is approximately 20%. The paper concludes with general observations and suggests directions for future action in CS curricula design.

This paper discusses various strategies for introducing and reinforcing software engineering prin... more This paper discusses various strategies for introducing and reinforcing software engineering principles in the undergraduate Computer Science curriculum. These strategies are based on a set of standards for internal/external documentation and organization of software which may be implemented quickly and inexpensively without a complete overhaul of courses. This provides a flexible f?amework for the development of a wide variety of carefully-planned programming assignments/projects.

SIGCSE bulletin, Jun 1, 1999

In the fall of 1994, we reorganized the content of our three-course computer science introductory... more In the fall of 1994, we reorganized the content of our three-course computer science introductory sequence in order to introduce software engineering concepts early and provide a consistent software engineering focus from one course to the next. We also established documentation and design standards that would serve as a framework for teaching the software engineering principles and techniques that we considered appropriate and essential to novice software developers. In an attempt to assess the impact of this new teaching process, we compared the performances in upper-level project-oriented courses of students who had been exposed to the new introductory sequence to those of students who had not. This paper describes the documentation and design standards established in 1994, their evolution over the past four years, and how these standards can be used as a framework for teaching software engineering concepts early in the curriculum. It also reports on what we have learned through tracking our students. We found that, in three upper-level courses, project grades for students exposed to software engineering concepts early averaged as much as half a letter grade higher than those of other students.

Dispositions, along with skills and knowledge, form the three components of competency-based educ... more Dispositions, along with skills and knowledge, form the three components of competency-based education. Moreover, studies have shown dispositions to be necessary for a successful career. However, unlike evidence-based teaching and learning approaches for knowledge acquisition and skill development, few studies focus on translating dispositions into observable behavioral patterns. An operationalization of dispositions, however, is crucial for students to understand and achieve respective learning outcomes in computing courses. This paper describes a multi-institutional study investigating students' understanding of dispositions in terms of their behaviors while completing coursework. Students in six computing courses at four different institutions filled out a survey describing an instance of applying each of the five surveyed dispositions (adaptable, collaborative, persistent, responsible, and self-directed) in the courses' assignments. The authors evaluated data by using Mayring's qualitative content analysis. The result was a coding scheme with categories summarizing students' concepts of dispositions and how they see themselves applying dispositions in the context of computing. These results are a first step in understanding dispositions in computing education and how they manifest in student behavior. This research has implications for educators developing new pedagogical approaches to promote and facilitate dispositions. Moreover, the operationalized behaviors constitute a starting point for new assessment strategies of dispositions.

SIGCSE bulletin, Jul 6, 2009

We present what students say about their preferred learning style to succeed in introductory prog... more We present what students say about their preferred learning style to succeed in introductory programming. Using the Felder-Silverman learning styles, students contrasted the 'best' learning style for programming with the 'best' for learning mathematics. Overall students believe that while they learn mathematics using a reflective style, learning to program is significantly more active. They also believe learning mathematics has a strong verbal component, whereas learning programming is primarily visual.

Abstract This special session will recap qualitative research design and analysis as discussed du... more Abstract This special session will recap qualitative research design and analysis as discussed during an NSF-sponsored two-part workshop for computer science education researchers held in 2009-2010. Several workshop participants will illustrate the use of ...

SIGCSE bulletin, Dec 1, 1998