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Dispositions are cultivable behaviors desirable in the workplace. Examples of dispositions are being adaptable, meticulous, and self-directed. The eleven dispositions described in the CC2020 report should not be confused with the professional knowledge of computing topics, or with skills, including technical skills, along with cross-disciplinary skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, or communication. Dispositions, more inherent to human characteristics, identify personal qualities and behavioral patterns important for successful professional careers. The leaders of this special session collaborate on a multi-institutional project funded by the National Science Foundation. Using their experiences at four higher education institutions, they will demonstrate how to foster dispositions among computing students through two hands-on activities. The audience will get first-hand experience using reflection exercises and vignettes, and will participate in debating their design, merits, and limitations. The resulting interaction will provide the audience ample time to discuss the benefits and challenges of incorporating and fostering dispositions in computing programs. It is hoped that participants will leave with concrete ideas on how to extend the current work to their own courses, programs, and institutions.
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Exploring college faculty development in 21 st -century skill instruction: an analysis of teaching-focused personal networks
While educators and policymakers increasingly link the ‘21st-century’ skills of communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and self-directed learning to graduate success in important high-technology industries, few studies look at how technological college faculty – who are expected to help instil these important skills in students – learn to better teach such skills. Faculty development research shows that feedback- and reflection-oriented social learning improves instruction, but has not typically investigated the full scope of beneficial teaching-focused interactions, formal and informal, in which faculty engage. Using a social network perspective, which focuses on the empirical contours of relationships across settings, this mixed methods study explores (1) the people with whom technological faculty discuss teaching, referred to as ‘teaching-focused personal networks;’ (2) the comparative contours of these networks by faculty development involvement, teaching experience, institution type, and discipline; and (3) how, if at all, faculty believe these networks influence their communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and self-directed learning instruction. Survey data (n = 192) indicate that most respondents discuss teaching with a core personal network of about four contacts, commonly institutional colleagues, around once a month. Data also show that network size, diversity, and strength – measures connected to actionable, relationship-based information and support, or ‘social capital’ – are broadly similar among faculty of varying subgroups, with one exception: respondents reporting involvement in in-depth faculty development programming have larger and stronger networks. Qualitative results show that most faculty reporting teaching-focused personal networks perceived them to benefit their teaching of communication, teamwork, problem-solving, or self-directed learning through support, reflection, feedback, and sharing new ideas.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1561686
- PAR ID:
- 10585178
- Publisher / Repository:
- Journal of Further and Higher Education
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Further and Higher Education
- Volume:
- 45
- Issue:
- 6
- ISSN:
- 0309-877X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 818 to 835
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2020.1826032
