CAREER: Creating a Model of Programming Skill Development to Improve Undergraduate Computing Education

Mississippi State University, Mississippi State MS

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving undergraduate computing and engineering education. The nation is driven by computer programs that are vital to everyday living. National security depends on the ability to withstand daily cyber-attacks. Economic security is connected to financial institutions securely moving millions of dollars electronically. National infrastructure depends on control systems that, for example, monitor air traffic and control automobiles. Humans connect electronically through smart phones, cell phone towers, and high-speed internet. The nation’s increasing dependence on computer programs is reflected in the increasing number of projected new jobs in computing occupations. However, the United States is not able to produce enough computing professionals for its needs. Learning to program is a well-known challenge and serves as a barrier to entry into the computing workforce. The research and education plans for this project aim to transform computing curricula and reduce programming as a workforce barrier. This project combines knowledge of how students learn to program (computing and engineering education findings) with how humans learn (cognitive science and education psychology findings) to examine learning to program at the intersection of multiple perspectives. To simultaneously focus on integrating research results into practice, this project will produce a training academy for future programming instructors. This project will use theoretical frameworks of writing, learning, and knowledge to chronologize how undergraduates pursuing computing degrees develop programming skills. The research goal for this project is to produce a longitudinal model of undergraduate programming skill development based on direct learning measures and surveys of industry expert practices. The education goal for the project is to create a community and training academy for future computing educators to apply research findings in classrooms. At the completion of this project, the computing and engineering education communities will know: 1) how engineering students’ programming skills, including thinking processes, visual organization strategies, and approaches for solving programming problems, evolve from introductory programming courses through degree attainment; 2) how writing, by exposing cognitive processes, supports the development of skills necessary for success in computing-required fields; and 3) how computing industry professionals’ views of requisite programming skills differ from the skills of engineering students in their final year of their degree program. Project oversight will be provided through external evaluation and an advisory board of computing education experts. This project has the potential to improve the education of the nation's computer programmers and to increase the number of students who successfully complete computer science degrees. The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-wide activity that supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education. This CAREER project is supported by the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources Program. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.