Faculty Perceptions of Teaching in Undergraduate Computer Science Education (original) (raw)
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Perceptions of Teaching in Undergraduate Computer Science Education
2009
The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes of computer science faculty members towards undergraduate teaching. The questions addressed in this study are: (1) How important is effective teaching to computer science faculty members at the undergraduate level and how important do they perceive effective teaching to be to their institution? 2) How much teacher training have computer science faculty members received? 3) What do computer science faculty members believe about teaching? 4) What are the current teaching practices of computer science faculty members and what influences those practices? 5) What incentives or rewards are offered to faculty members who try innovative teaching methods or receive additional training? The motivation for investigating these questions is a general dissatisfaction among students with teaching quality and a desire of faculty members to improve the efficacy of recruitment and retention of students in computer science programs. Over three hund...
Research on retaining students in computer science is clear: pedagogical and curricular interventions that are experienced by all students are the most effective. Yet understanding what brings faculty to modify their teaching practices is scant. This study presents findings from a study based on interviews with 66 computer science professors and instructors in the U.S. Faculty described various sources of student feedback that prompt them to change their teaching practices. Though not originally an interview topic, every instructor mentioned ways in which student feedback instigated change. Faculty described several sources of feedback that influence teaching choices, with the goal of trying to improve their teaching. These include formalized evaluations; feedback inferred from student performance; direct requests from students; and students' nonverbal behavior. As sources of evidence for making decisions about teaching practices, each of these is problematic. We describe what makes them problematic and offer solutions described by faculty interviewed.
IMPROVING COLLEGE TEACHING - U of A
Teaching in colleges is marked by historic paradox: though institutions constantly talk up its importance, they evaluate faculty primarily on the basis of scholarly achievements outside the classroom. Teaching is what almost every professor does, but it seems to suffer from that very commonness. It occupies the greatest amount of most professors' time, but rarely operates at the highest level of competence. There seems to be an ingrained academic reluctance to regard teaching in the same way the profession regards every other set of skills: as something that can be taught. Professors who take painstaking care for method within their discipline of chemistry, history, or psychology, for example, all too often are unreflective when it comes to teaching.
Through the eyes of instructors
Proceedings of the third international workshop on Computing education research - ICER '07, 2007
In this paper we present a phenomenographic analysis of computer science instructors' perceptions of student success. The factors instructors believe influence student success fell into five categories which were related to: 1) the subject being taught, 2) intrinsic characteristics of the student, 3) student background, 4) student attitudes and behaviour and 5) instructor influence on student development. These categories provide insights not only into how instructors perceive students, but also how they perceive their own roles in the learning process. We found significant overlap between these qualitative results, obtained through analysis of semi-structured interviews, and the vast body of quantitative research on factors predicting student success. Studying faculty rather than students provides an alternative way to examine these questions, and using qualitative methods may provide a richer understanding of student success factors.
Teaching Delivery Issues: Lessons from Computer Science
Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 2002
Information Technology (IT) is a subject that is distinct from Computer Science (CS), but is often taught by CS faculty; there is a large overlap between the content of curricula for the two subjects. In this paper, we discuss some of the issues and problems experienced within CS that are also of relevance to the IT educator. We discuss the effects of student and faculty expectations along with curricular issues, and we conclude that setting student expectations and aligning them with our own at as early a stage as possible is crucial to success. Expectations Students: Students arrive at University from a much broader range of backgrounds than previously; they may be mature or have experienced a non-traditional education. When they draw upon their past experiences to help interpret this new environment they are drawing upon scenarios that many faculty have not experienced. Many students also arrive with different expectations regarding higher education. In some cases, the benefit of a degree with the correct title far outweighs any thirst for particular knowledge. Faculty: Many faculty members previously qualified in a different subject; they want to teach CS and don't want to teach IT; they find it difficult to recognize students' lack of domain understanding which is a required underpinning; they expect their implicit expectations to be noted and acted upon by students without making them explicit. Teaching Delivery Issues 78 learning is an excellent way to boost confidence before we can expect any deep learning to occur. Transferable skills: Many useful transferable skills can be employed within the IT curriculum. Here we discuss some of the more profitable and successful along with guidelines for replication.
1995
Teaching in colleges is marked by historic paradox: though institutions constantly talk up its importance, they evaluate faculty primarily on the basis of scholarly achievements outside the classroom. Teaching is what almost every professor does, but it seems to suffer from that very commonness. It occupies the greatest amount of most professors' time, but rarely operates at the highest level of competence. There seems to be an ingrained academic reluctance to regard teaching in the same way the profession regards every other set of skills: as something that can be taught. Professors who take painstaking care for method within their discipline of chemistry, history, or psychology, for example, all too often are unreflective when it comes to teaching.
How Student Centered is the Computer Science Classroom? A Survey of College Faculty
ACM Transactions on Computing Education, 2017
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.
A Course Redesign Project to Change Faculty Orientation toward Teaching
2012
This article discusses the development, implementation, and outcomes of a Faculty Course Redesign Camp for full-time and adjunct faculty members. The purpose of the camp was to educate and coach faculty in effective strategies to promote learner-centered teaching skills. Evaluation results show that the participants changed their orientation toward teaching in the dimension of their role in instruction, but they made little change in balance of power and responsibility for learning. As a function of our leadership roles in the Center for Teaching Excellence at Anna Maria College, a small Catholic-based liberal arts institution, we developed, implemented, and facilitated a Faculty Course Redesign Camp for full-time and adjunct faculty members. The purpose of the camp was to educate and coach faculty in effective strategies to promote learner- centered teaching skills while generating student excitement for course content. Participants in the camp produced a revised course syllabus. I...