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1. Connecting Evaluation and Computing Education Research: Why is it so Important?

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3159450.3159642  

   Decker, Adrienne; McGill, Monica M.; Ravitz, Jason; Snow, Eric; Zarch, Rebecca (January 2018, SIGCSE '18 Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education)

   With the growth of computing education research in the last decade, we have found a call for a strengthening of empiricism within the computing education research community. Computer science education researchers are being asked to focus not only the innovation that the research creates or the question it answers, but also on validating the claims we made about the work. In this session, we will explore the relationship between evaluation and computing education research and why it is so vital to the success of the many computing education initiatives underway. It will also help computing faculty engaged in computer science education research understand why it is essential to integrate evaluation and validation from the very first conceptual stages of their intervention programs. 

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2. Social Responsibility Attitudes Among Undergraduate Computer Science Students: An Empirical Analysis

   Kreth, Quintin; Schiff, Daniel; Lee, Jeonghyun; Zegura, Ellen; Borenstein, Jason (August 2022, 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   Scholars and public figures have called for improved ethics and social responsibility education in computer science degree programs in order to better address consequential technological issues in society. Indeed, rising public concern about computing technologies arguably represents an existential threat to the credibility of the computing profession itself. Despite these increasing calls, relatively little is known about the ethical development and beliefs of computer science students, especially compared to other science and engineering students. Gaps in scholarly research make it difficult to effectively design and evaluate ethics education interventions in computer science. Therefore, there is a pressing need for additional empirical study regarding the development of ethical attitudes in computer science students. Influenced by the Professional Social Responsibility Development Model, this study explores personal and professional social responsibility attitudes among undergraduate computing students. Using survey results from a sample of 982 students (including 184 computing majors) who graduated from a large engineering institution between 2017 and 2021, we compare social responsibility attitudes cross-sectionally among computer science students, engineering students, other STEM students, and non-STEM students. Study findings indicate computer science students have statistically significantly lower social responsibility attitudes than their peers in other science and engineering disciplines. In light of growing ethical concerns about the computing profession, this study provides evidence about extant challenges in computing education and buttresses calls for more effective development of social responsibility in computing students. We discuss implications for undergraduate computing programs, ethics education, and opportunities for future research. 

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3. WIP: Understanding the Production of Highly Qualified Computer Science Teachers in a Predominant Hispanic Community: Computer Science Undergraduate Students' Perceptions of Becoming a Teacher

   https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE61694.2024.10893334  

   Kim, Sanga; Wang, Xuemei; Villa, Elsa Q (October 2024, IEEE)

   This research WIP paper describes computer science undergraduate students’ perceptions of career pathways and becoming K-12 computer science teachers. Computer science (CS) education has become critical with the rapid pace of technological development to better prepare students for national technology and economic competitiveness and security. According to Code.org, 57.5% of U.S. public high schools offer foundational computer science courses in 2023; unfortunately, access to the courses remains unequal and maintains wide disparities by race/ethnicity and social class. For instance, Hispanics are 1.4 times less likely to take foundational CS courses compared to their white and Asian peers, and students with low socio-economic status are underrepresented in the overall population. The shortage of CS teachers is one of the significant barriers to why minoritized groups of students do not have equal access to learning CS. Various programmatic efforts have been implemented to address the gap, including the recruitment of undergraduate students who will earn bachelor’s degrees in computing. This approach has been considered innovative in building a new pipeline for producing highly qualified CS teachers with the ability to transform computing education and the CS teacher community rather than training in-service teachers certified in other disciplines to receive credentials to teach CS. Studies report that CS degree recipients opt for industry roles and exhibit disinterest in alternative career pathways, such as teaching because they perceive this profession as having lower salaries and unfavorable aspects associated with the job. However, we need a more prosperous and in-depth understanding of why CS degree holders consider industry jobs of greater importance rather than teaching, which would reduce the disparity in K-12 computing education. As a first attempt to better understand the perceptions of computer science undergraduate students at an Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), we collected qualitative data (i.e., student artifacts) in a course offered in the computer science department. Driven by social cognitive career and FIT-choice theory, our findings from the preliminary analysis indicate that CS undergraduate students at an HSI acknowledged the importance of K-12 CS teachers in their communities, but at the same time, they have more concerns about the underpayment and undervaluation of the job. They have shown a conflict between their perceptions of teaching CS and their own career aspirations as CS teachers. These preliminary findings draw attention to the importance of uncovering common career plans among CS undergraduate students. 

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4. (2024, October). WIP: Understanding the Production of Highly Qualified Computer Science Teachers in a Predominant Hispanic Community: Computer Science Undergraduate Students' Perceptions of Becoming a Teacher. In 2024 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.

   Kim, Sanga; Wang, Xuemei; Villa, Elsa Q (October 2024, Proceedings Frontiers in Education Conference)

   This research WIP paper describes computer science undergraduate students’ perceptions of career pathways and becoming K-12 computer science teachers. Computer science (CS) education has become critical with the rapid pace of technological development to better prepare students for national technology and economic competitiveness and security. According to Code.org, 57.5% of U.S. public high schools offer foundational computer science courses in 2023; unfortunately, access to the courses remains unequal and maintains wide disparities by race/ethnicity and social class. For instance, Hispanics are 1.4 times less likely to take foundational CS courses compared to their white and Asian peers, and students with low socio-economic status are underrepresented in the overall population. The shortage of CS teachers is one of the significant barriers to why minoritized groups of students do not have equal access to learning CS. Various programmatic efforts have been implemented to address the gap, including the recruitment of undergraduate students who will earn bachelor’s degrees in computing. This approach has been considered innovative in building a new pipeline for producing highly qualified CS teachers with the ability to transform computing education and the CS teacher community rather than training in-service teachers certified in other disciplines to receive credentials to teach CS. Studies report that CS degree recipients opt for industry roles and exhibit disinterest in alternative career pathways, such as teaching because they perceive this profession as having lower salaries and unfavorable aspects associated with the job. However, we need a more prosperous and in-depth understanding of why CS degree holders consider industry jobs of greater importance rather than teaching, which would reduce the disparity in K-12 computing education. As a first attempt to better understand the perceptions of computer science undergraduate students at an Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), we collected qualitative data (i.e., student artifacts) in a course offered in the computer science department. Driven by social cognitive career and FIT-choice theory, our findings from the preliminary analysis indicate that CS undergraduate students at an HSI acknowledged the importance of K-12 CS teachers in their communities, but at the same time, they have more concerns about the underpayment and undervaluation of the job. They have shown a conflict between their perceptions of teaching CS and their own career aspirations as CS teachers. These preliminary findings draw attention to the importance of uncovering common career plans among CS undergraduate students. 

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5. Meeting Students Where they Are: A Virtual Computer Science Education Research (CSER) Experience for Undergraduates (REU)

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3408877.3432547  

   Ross, Monique; Litzler, Elizabeth; Lopez, Jake (March 2021, 2021 SIGCSE Technical Symposium)

   null (Ed.)

   Currently, the computer science community is experiencing a rise in interest in computer science education research (CSER). However, current structures and belief systems within the discipline have largely relegated computer science education researchers to the margins. Computer science education researchers are mainly 'lone-wolf' scholars in their departments that participate in CSER in addition to their more widely 'accepted' computer science research. As such, there has been a resistance to offer doctoral programs in CSER. Florida International University has not only invested inCSER by hiring a CSER tenure-track faculty member, they have also established a School of Computer Science Education and Engineering Education. Despite this investment, one obstacle remains the low visibility and understanding of computer science education research among undergraduate students. This makes establishing are search group of Ph.D. students challenging. In order to combat this obstacle, a four-year program was developed as a dedicated pipeline to the computer science education Ph.D. through a series of research experiences for undergraduates (REU). Summer 2020 consisted of the first cohort of this four year commitment. Given that 2020 was wrought with a series of unprecedented events, this REU was designed and executed virtually. This paper presents the plan, setting, execution, and subsequent evaluation of this virtual REU experience. Student-feedback was overwhelmingly positive; however, as with any endeavor there were many lessons learned. 

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