Amber Solomon
Ph.D. Student
School of Interactive Computing
College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology
Date: Thursday, April 18, 2019
Time: 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm (EDT)
Location: Klaus 1212
Committee:
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Dr. Betsy DiSalvo (Advisor, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology),
Dr. Mark Guzdial (Advisor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, University of Michigan),
Dr. Ashok Goel (School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology),
Dr. Wendy Newstetter (School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology),
Dr. David Uttal (Department of Psychology, Northwestern University)
Summary:
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The computer science (CS) education research community has long been intrigued by the possibility of finding factors that influence and predict students’ success in learning to program. Understanding the factors of success has both practical and theoretical implications, including designing better learning interventions and creating cognitive models of learning to program. Research has inferred that there is a correlation between high scores on spatial ability test and high CS performance; students who score high on spatial ability tests also tend to have high CS performance. This suggests that spatial thinking, or the ability to think about space, may be a factor that leads to success in CS. Although these correlations exist, the extent to which learning to program requires the use of these abilities remains unclear. Research in CS education has yet to provide evidence beyond correlations, that can explain why spatial thinking leads to better performance.
In this research, I intend to investigate the ways in which spatial thinking appears in CS teaching (e.g., as captured in YouTube/MOOC videos of lectures) and in CS learning (by watching dyads teaching each other about recursion). Using research methodologies from the learning sciences and educational psychology, my work aims to develop a ground-up and empirically supported theory of why spatial thinking may be a factor that leads to programming success.
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