How might our discussions about equity and discovery learning impact how we address programming in this course?
I believe that students that participate in class learn the most. I do my best to include everyone in class discussions - I enforce the rule of raising hands before speaking, write-pair-share, random calling. They also get points for participation.
Discovery learning looks different than the teacher leading a step-by-step tutorial to the class on the projector. Instead, students would be given time to play in the programming interface and present their discoveries to the rest of the class.
Equity involves assigning a task which assumes little to no prior knowledge, thus leveling the playing field. It also means assigning a task that can be accomplished in multiple ways and/or using multiple modalities. This also helps even the playing field.
With the diverse group of individuals participating in the PD, we are getting a good cross-section of how each teacher will address programming to their student population. The point being that with the varied social, culture, economic and academic backgrounds of the group, there are many perspectives on how to present programming to the the undersevered students.
According to our reading equitable teaching will broaden the students participation. One of the topic that was discuss in class today was about students being exposed and having the opportunity to learn Computer Science. I totally agree with this statement because I am one of those African American female that was not exposed to computer science during my high school years (80’s) but I later found out by reading business magazines.
Our class discussion today propelled me to think about my teaching practices and style. How can I ensure that my CSP class is equitable for Cypress Bay’s diverse population? Equity can be achieved by providing all students with the same resources and teaching guidance. One way this can be accomplished is by providing many opportunities for Discovery Learning. “Playing” with the provided widgets and “engaging” with the various lessons online, students will have the opportunity to learn the material. I feel this will have a positive impact on how we address programming in this course.
My school doesn’t have a recruitment strategy, therefore I believe it is equitable. My school serves a population of underrepresented groups, so I feel it is up to me to do the best that I can to make the program exciting and fun. Most of my students are not native to this country. I feel all these lessons will be an “ah ha” moment for the . They’re going to love it!!!
Just as we have used discovery in the process of learning new topics and widgets, I feel comfortable using this concept when introducing programming. While some students may seem confused or appear frustrated at the first shot, it will certainly improve their ability to look and implement the solution through their own thinking process and/or peers.
I consider that equity is more related to facilitate and to
provide opportunities to underrepresented individuals in the computers area,
including, but not limited to, computer science, computer engineering, programming,
networking, etc. We are working in creating, or better say, recreating the
opportunities for these students to access these fields. One work of caution,
hope we do not have differentiated opportunities with singular or exclusive treatments
that will create a form of reverse discrimination. I believe the opportunity should
be the same for everyone, as well as responsibilities, duties and obligations.
Regarding discovery learning, it is not a unique characteristic
on computer science. I think that discovery should be applied to science and
non-science courses, you can discovery new words, new stories, new ideas by
yourself, the new is relative to the person who discovers them.
By gathering these ideas, we can apply them to programming,
at many levels, can be programs used for simple tasks, can be used for
more complex tasks, such as embedded programming in robotics, or for research in medicine, biology, etc.
After attending a workshop that focused on attracting minorities to study computer science, I have been more cognizant of the types of coding assignments that I give. I try to give a variety of assignments so that although a student may not find every assignment interesting, he will probably enjoy doing many of them. I also sometimes offer different assignments to my students so that they can choose the difficulty level of the work. Many of the students, even the weaker students, choose the harder problems because they like being challenged.
I agree with Vijayshree that students can learn to program through the process of discovery. Although we can teach them the syntax and keywords of a language, students will learn to program by coding. Students often learn a lot from the mistakes they make as they program. I learned a lot about Java from helping my students debug their work.
Our discussions about equity and discovery learning impact the way we address programming in this course by:
a. Creating a forum where we can discuss the ethos of equity, diversity, and engagement;
b. Allowing teachers to collaborate and discuss the ways in which they can broaden the experiences of their learners, irrespective of their backgrounds;
c.establishing a curriculum their intrinsically contains culturally relevant lessons and activities that enable students of diverse backgrounds to connect to and feel some sense of engagement, inclusion and acknowledgement;
d. Empowering the teachers to collectively and purposefully include material that is designed to address the needs of ALL of their students, rather than a select few. After all,we should not leave a single child behind!
As such, all children should feel a sense of equity, legitimacy, democracy, and inclusion in their education. I think that CS Principles levels the playing field of discovery learning, educational attainment, and participation. It is the teacher’s job to create the ecosystem of educational empowerment.
Lastly, I am convinced from our discussions, and CS Principles PD (professional development) this week that we are more than prepared to create an educational ecosystem in which ALL students can, and will thrive!
It changes our philosophy of teaching. Traditionally, we directly taught students the content and those who were gifted or had the background succeeded. Everyone else failed or cheated or even worse didn’t get the opportunity to be exposed to the course at all. We are now trying to give every one an entry way into the basic skills of programming. They access the content with their level of prior knowledge and we hope to extend their understanding to computer science skills. It’s a powerful tool because it gives students who didn’t have access a fair opportunity to be exposed to and develop cs skills.
In teaching ECS last year, I found that I had very little teaching to do and students had a lot of learning to do on their own. Although many of my traditional classes had some discovery learning, it is not to the extent as the ECS curriculum. It took a lot not to teach the web design unit of ECS in my traditional manner. What I found was that students learned without my detailed lectures. Although the web sites lacked in web design rules, they learned enough without me to create a decent web site and almost comparable to one of my Foundations of web design students. It did not matter if they had some to no experience in web designing because all had the same objectives and rubric and were expected to look up scripts and implement these into their web pages. All students had an equal opportunity to learn.
If the CSP curriculum follows the same format as in ECS, I believe students will learn programming through the scaffold lessons. One of the teachers in our group talked about how students will take another class of math because she is the one that will be teaching it. I truly believe that also. Students, and I mean all students, are like sponges even those who are below reading and math levels and are the ones who come into the classroom unmotivated, missing essential parts of their education, and may have behavioral and emotional issues. What teachers, including myself, must remember is that these students are so beat up by the school system, parents and teachers who have given up on them, no motivation from home to do better and the list goes on, that they have given up on themselves. Thus how personable and professional we are with students is a major factor in student learning as well. We must believe in them, motivate them, push them, and help them open their minds to new possibilities and courses.
Basically if we have a positive attitude towards the CSP curriculum and make sure that all students have the same advantages and opportunities for learning, students should do well with the programming. I know I have to put aside my own fears and keep an open mind and learn with them as well. I can attest that one of my best experiences in teaching, was the course I taught in which I had to teach myself and then teach what I learned to students. We all discovered new things and shared with each other…we all learned…we did it together.
I believe that our discussions about equity primarily impact us as teachers, these conversations allow us an opportunity to see how we can have an impact in the accessibility of CS to the general population in our schools. It either opens our eyes or reinforces our belief that more girls need to be included in these courses along with boys of all backgrounds and races.
Discovery learning via GUI interfaces is a viable way to learn programming concepts. Lab app can provide our students a vehicle that will allow them to discover, experiment and learn.
Discovery learning is a good way of getting students introduced to Computer Science Principles, or for that matter, to anything else as well. Usually young people still have a sense of curiosity, unless is has been taught away over the years through one way teaching.and through application of thoughtless discipline. There is a chance to re-awaken that curiosity by creating a classroom atmosphere of tolerance for diversity, respectful collaboration and kindness and by making your classroom a sanctuary for exploration where mistakes and errors are tools to be used for learning and therefore be valued. Its all in the process. Of course discovery learning does not mean undirected wasteful lingering around, it need to be directed with concrete instructions and plenty of modelling and scaffolding to boot. (btw. undirected is a word my spellcheck does not recognize, maybe it does not exist, but should)
In addition, it should have built in numerous formative assessments to inform the instructor if the students are on the right track. From this knowing about my students performance level, and responding to particular students, a natural form of equity is reached.
Of course I will fail, and fail again. But I will continue to learn from my instructional short-comings to continue to fulfill my mandate, to help students learn.
Discovery learning works differently for different people. Some discover quickly, others discover, or uncover, more gradually. Equity means allowing time for this to happen and impressing upon all students that everyone deserves that opportunity. Sometimes the hardest things for kids to do is to allow others to think. As teachers we need to foster an environments where students can remove the layers obscuring the object of their quest in a time frame that is both equitable and practical. This is a difficult task, but worth doing.
Discovery learning may help include more non traditional CS students and appeal to a more diverse student base. If implemented and supported properly by the teacher, students may feel more comfortable with some of the activities. I think during the programming unit, students will be able to proceed more at their own pace and with the teacher be able to set more individualized goals.
I believe that equity is a difficult concept to achieve in any field. In the process of programming, we can approach equity through providing a consistent and thoughtful instruction to each student.
Equity in learning affords ALL students, regardless of culture and skill set, the opportunity to experience and explore computer science at a pace that is most comfortable for them in a safe environment. Equitability provides the learner with a feeling of ownership, responsibility, and value. Equitability and discussion helps the learner to think outside the box and take risks, discovering many facets to learning as they go through the process and perform with a sense of needing to be involved. Students begin to connect to solving real world problems in a socially respected and safe environment.
Discovery learning affect students in different ways. For those students to learn quickly they’re able to apply to their knowledge The concepts and content that is provided in this course. That and able to make global connections through CSP that opens their minds the possibilities in the field. For those students who are slow learners, discovery learning can be a detriment to their progress in the course. They could feel considerable pressur through CSP that opens their minds the possibilities in the field. For those students who are slow learners, discovery learning can be a detriment to their progress in the course. They could experience considerable pressure to complete tasks they struggle with and thus not have enough time to meet certain milestones.