For the last three years the CS for All initiative at the National Science Foundation has had a call for research-practice partnership (RPP) projects. The goal of the program is to advance both knowledge and practice in creating inclusive, responsive computer science/computational thinking programs for all K-12 youth. RPPs represent an approach to research that, by design, is both more equitable and more ethical because it leverages community stakeholder experiences and perspectives to inform research questions, methods, and meaning-making. RPPs are thus potentially powerful tools for equity-oriented initiatives such as CS for All. Beginning in December 2016, the Research + Practice Collaboratory, an NSF-funded initiative based at the University of Washington, has led ten RPP development workshops for CS for All, collectively serving over 700 members of the community. At these workshops we have collected data about how the community sees itself benefiting from the adoption of RPP approaches to the work. In this experience paper we describe what we have learned about the field’s interests with respect to adopting RPP approaches to the work.
more »
« less
Making Research Practice Partnerships Work: An Assessment of The Maker Partnership
Strong, equitable research practice partnerships (RPPs) center both researcher and practitioner perspectives and priorities. These RPPs facilitate rigorous, relevant research that practitioners can use to improve program implementation. Our project, The Maker Partnership, is an RPP focused on building knowledge about how to help elementary level teachers integrate computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT) into their regular science classes using maker pedagogy. In this experience report, we use the Henrich et al. framework to assess the Maker Partnership’s effectiveness along five dimensions and share practical advice and lessons learned. This paper contributes to the CS and RPP literature by providing insight into how an RPP can address critical problems of practice in computer science education.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1742320
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10309859
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Annual Conference on Research in Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT)
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
null (Ed.)Computer science (CS) has the potential to positively impact the economic well-being of those who pursue it, and the lives of those who benefit from its innovations. Yet, large CS learning opportunity gaps exist for students from historically underrepresented populations. The Computer Science for All (CS for All) movement has brought nationwide attention to these inequities in CS education. More recently, financial support for research-practice partnerships (RPPs) has increased to address these disparities because such collaborations can yield more relevant research for immediate educational/practical application. However, for initiatives to effectively engage in equity-focused initiatives toward making computing inclusive, partnership members need to begin with a shared definition of equity to which all are accountable. This poster takes a critical look at the development of a collaboratively developed definition of equity and its application in a CS for All RPP of university researchers and administrators from local education agencies across the state of California. Details are shared about how the RPP collectively defined equity and how that definition evolved and informed the larger project’s work with school administrators/educators.more » « less
-
CSforALL and SageFox (Ed.)Computer science (CS) has the potential to positively impact the economic well-being of those who pursue it, and the lives of those who benefit from its innovations. Yet, large CS learning opportunity gaps exist for students from systemically excluded populations. Because of these disparities, the Computer Science for All (CS for All) movement has brought nationwide attention to inequity in CS education. Funding agencies and institutions are supporting the development of research-practice partnerships (RPPs) to address these disparities, recognizing that collaboration between researchers and educators yields accurate and relevant research results, while informing teaching practice. However, for initiatives to effectively make computing inclusive, partnership members need to begin with a shared and collaboratively generated definition of equity to which all are accountable. This paper takes a critical look at the development of a shared definition of equity and its application in a CS for All RPP composed of university researchers and administrators from local education agencies across a large west coast state. Details are shared about how the RPP came together across research and practice to define equity, as well as how that definition continued to evolve and inform the larger project’s work with school administrators/educators. Suggestions about how to apply key lessons from this equity exercise are offered to inform similar justice-oriented projects.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)While the Computer Science for All (CS for All) movement has led to valuable advancements in equity-oriented curricula and teacher professional development, critical questions remain about how to build the capacity of school and district leadership to implement equitable CS education. How can administrators be supported in decision-making practices so that their school policies facilitaterather than hinder CS for All efforts? Our statewide research-practice partnership (RPP)—representing fourteen different urban, rural, and suburban local education agencies (LEAs) across the state—sought to tackle this question by collaboratively developing, implementing, and iteratively improving upon a guide and workshop for administrators seeking to bring CS into their schools, as well as a multi-stakeholder PD for teachers, counselors, and principals. Both researcher and administrator panelists will share how we built an RPP, lessons learned in creating administrator resources, and details about effective multi-stakeholder PD. In line with SIGCSE’s 2021 call, this panel will inform audience members about how RPPs and a focus on leadership can expand computing education opportunities for more students in K-12 public schools.more » « less
-
Background: Researcher-practitioner partnerships (RPPs) have gained increasing prominence within education, since they are crucial for identifying partners’ problems of practice and seeking solutions for improving district (or school) problems. The CS Pathways RPP project brought together researchers and practitioners, including middle school teachers and administrators from three urban school districts, to build teachers’ capacity to implement an inclusive computer science and digital literacy (CSDL) curriculum for all students in their middle schools. Objective: This study explored the teachers’ self-efficacy development in teaching a middle school CSDL curriculum under the project’s RPP framework. The ultimate goal was to gain insights into how the project’s RPP framework and its professional development (PD) program supported teachers’ self-efficacy development, in particular its challenges and success of the partnership. Method: Teacher participants attended the first-year PD program and were surveyed and/or interviewed about their self-efficacy in teaching CSDL curriculum, spanning topics ranging from digital literacy skills to app creation ability and curriculum implementation. Both survey and interview data were collected and analyzed using mixed methods 1) to examine the reach of the RPP PD program in terms of teachers’ self-efficacy; 2) to produce insightful understandings of the PD program impact on the project’s goal of building teachers’ self-efficacy. Results and Discussion: We reported the teachers’ self-efficacy profiles based on the survey data. A post-survey indicated that a majority of the teachers have high self-efficacy in teaching the CSDL curriculum addressed by the RPP PD program. Our analysis identified five critical benefits the project’s RPP PD program provided, namely collaborative efforts on resource and infrastructure building, content and pedagogical knowledge growth, collaboration and communication, and building teacher identity. All five features have shown direct impacts on teachers' self-efficacy. The study also reported teachers’ perceptions on the challenges they faced and potential areas for improvements. These findings indicate some important features of an effective PD program, informing the primary design of an RPP CS PD program.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/RESPECT51740.2021.9620713
