Predicting Learning: Comparing Study Techniques, Perseverance, and Metacognitive Skill

We present our case study of an interdisciplinary team project for students taking either a psychology or computer science (CS) course. The project required psychology and CS students to combine their knowledge and skills to create an online cognitive task. Each interdisciplinary project team included two psychology students who conducted library research and drafted a design protocol for the cognitive task and a CS student who created the online version. The teams produced nine applets to test cognitive abilities such as memory and imagery. Our pre-post Interdisciplinary Team Project Survey indicated students gained significant experience working with each other by the end of the semester. Psychology students reported increases in areas such as summarizing data and delivering an oral presentation. CS students reported gains in computer programming. Leadership ratings moved upward for CS students, and psychology students reported greater experience conducting team projects by the end of the semester. CS students experienced some challenges with the interdisciplinary project regarding time management. We offer lessons learned and identify strategies for improving interdisciplinary team projects. An interdisciplinary team project prepares students for the type of work they will find in graduate school or workplace.

New Voices and New Visions for Engaging Native Americans in Computer Science is a collaborative project between Boston University and University of New Mexico, funded through NSF's Broadening Participation in Computing program. This project combines Native American culture and art with a high-technology, computer-rich environment as a vehicle to engage Native American students in computer and computational science. The project employs the Access Grid (AG), virtual reality technologies and Boston University's stereoscopic Deep Vision Display Wall (DVD Wall) to create a culturally and technologically compelling educational experience.The curriculum will expose both college and high school students to the power and depth of computer science, hopefully inspiring many of them to obtain a degree in this discipline. We anticipate that this pilot project will provide a model based on an interdisciplinary framework which can be emulated by other institutions and adapted for other groups underrepresented in computer and computational sciences.

Participants were 131 (69 women, 62 men)students in Introductory Psychology, Social Psychology,and Computer Science courses. Eighty-six percent of thesample was Caucasian. The goals of this study were to assess (a) how accurate students'preexamination expectancies and postexamination gradeevaluations are and whether gender differences in theaccuracy of expectancies and grade evaluations onexaminations exist, (b) whether expected grades predictpostexamination grade evaluations even with actualgrades controlled (self-consistency effect), and (c)whether students' grade expectations and evaluationsbecome more accurate with experience. Throughout thecourse of a semester, students estimated their gradesfor each of their examinations. Students overestimatedtheir grades at all points in the semester, although women in Introductory Psychology overestimatedtheir grades less than men did. Students' expectedgrades were a better predictor of their postexaminationgrade evaluations than were their actual grades. For Introductory Psychology students,expectancies and grade evaluations became more accurateas the semester progressed. The importance of accurateself-perceptions regarding academic performance isdiscussed.

Metacognition plays a significant role in student learning, especially in solving ill-structured problems. Computer science students who are enrolled in a software engineering course or information systems development projects have to complete ill-structured problems, in this case a project that can be solved using more than one solution or approach. Although the course is compulsory, it is important to understand its implementation from cognitive/metacognitive perspective. The objective of the study is to investigate the students' metacognitive skills while working on their information systems projects. We used Engineering Design Metacognitive Questionnaire (EDMQ) as the instrument that is grounded in Butler and Cartier's self-regulated learning (SRL) model. Two early phases in design phases were used, namely Problem Definition and Conceptual Design. One hundred and thirty-four students enrolled in IS Development Project course at Faculty of Computer Science, Universitas Indonesia participated in the study. There are two types of data collected in the study, quantitative and qualitative data. The results found that on average the students often employ metacognitive skills under the following categories: Task Interpretation, Planning Strategies, Cognitive Actions, Monitoring and Fix-Up strategies, and Criteria of Success.

Students bring many misconceptions about psychology to the introductory psychology course. We investigated whether scores on a 10-item Knowledge of Psychology Test (adapted from Vaughan, 1977) taken on the first class day were related to final class grades in 11 introductory psychology classes taught by the same instructor at three colleges. A total of 178 undergraduate students decided whether each of 10 statements referring to common psychology misconceptions was true or false. Overall, 83% of students held 5 or more misconceptions out of 10. We found a significant negative correlation between the number of misconceptions held and class grade. Misconceptions remain prevalent among undergraduates and continue to be predictive of student performance. Learning about the content, causes, and consequences of holding psychology misconceptions may be helpful to students and educators as they embark on an introductory psychology course. ********** Variation in prior knowledge is one factor that influences students' performance in college courses. Although prerequisites increase the degree to which students in upper-level courses share a common knowledge foundation, introductory classes (which rarely have prerequisites) often contain students who vary widely in their prior knowledge of course content. Identifying and addressing variability in prior knowledge may promote more effective study skills among students and better teaching practices among instructors. In this study, we report findings on the relation between undergraduates' pre-course knowledge and subsequent course performance in one of the most popular college courses, introductory psychology. Undergraduates enter the introductory psychology course with many misconceptions about the discipline. Beginning at least as early as the mid-1920s (Nixon, 1925), instructors have noted the prevalence of psychology misconceptions brought to the introductory course (e.g., Brown, 1983; Furnham & Rawles, 1993; Vaughan, 1977). Others have examined the resistance of misconceptions to change (e.g., Best, 1982; Landau & Bavaria, 2003; Standing & Huber, 2003) and the validity of misconceptions (Brown, 1984; Griggs & Ransdell, 1987; Ruble, 1986). A relatively underexplored realm is the association between the extent of misconceived beliefs and course performance. The few studies that have investigated the relation between number of misconceptions held and introductory psychology course performance have yielded mixed results. Valentine (1936) and Gutman (1979) both found that number of misconceptions correlated negatively with introductory psychology course grade (-.37 and -.35, respectively). By contrast, Vaughan (1977) failed to find an overall significant negative correlation between number of misconceptions and course grade in the four classes she studied. Given the age and conflicting results of these studies, we believed it worthwhile to re-examine this issue. Learning about the content, causes, and consequences of holding psychology misconceptions can be helpful to students and educators as they embark on an introductory psychology course (e.g., Smith, 2000, pp. 8-9; Swinkels, Guiliano, & Cardone, 2000, pp. 1.14-1.15). Using a much broader sample of students than any previous study we explored two questions: a) Do today's introductory psychology undergraduates still hold misconceptions about psychology? and b) Are undergraduates' misconceptions related to their subsequent performance in introductory psychology? We predicted that misconceptions would still be prevalent among today's introductory psychology students and that students who began the course with fewer misconceptions would earn higher course grades relative to students who held more misconceptions. Method Participants One hundred and seventy-eight undergraduates from 11 semester-long introductory psychology classes taught at three schools between 2001-2005 participated in this study. …

In the article, based on the criterion approach, the effectiveness of the system for assessing the functional literacy of students in computer science is proved by conducting a pedagogical experiment and conclusions are drawn about the results of practical work. The teaching experience consists of three stages. At the ascertaining stage, it was revealed to what extent the assessment tasks in computer science were compiled taking into account the directions of functional literacy of students. At the applicant stage, tasks and tasks were developed to assess the functional literacy of students based on a criteria-based approach in computer science. At the educational and control stage, the influence of the functional literacy assessment system, developed on the basis of a criterion approach in computer science, on the quality of knowledge and the methodology of teaching students in computer science was revealed. In addition, during the practice, the educational and methodological manual "tasks for assessing the functional literacy of students in computer science" was used. During the training in the control groups, the assessment of knowledge was carried out according to the traditional method, and in the experimental groups on tasks to assess the functional literacy of students based on the criteria approach.

PurposeThis study investigates computer science (CS) students' perceived needs for support in an array of academic and nonacademic areas prior to entering college and relates these findings to their subsequent performance in the core CS curriculum. This study specifically explored how students' perceived needs vary by gender and residency and how these perceived needs relate to students' academic performance in CS courses.Design/methodology/approachData included survey responses and academic performance measures from 718 CS students. Approximately 14 percent of the participants were female students, and 86 percent were male students. Also, 24 percent of students were international, 46 percent out-of-state, and 30 percent were in-state students. To address research questions, multiple regressions and analysis of covariance were conducted. For all analyses, students' ACT scores were used as covariates.FindingsResults show significant main effects for both gender and residency, but interaction is not significant. Female students, on average, selected more perceived needs compared to male students. Also, international students selected more needs compared to domestic students. Also, the number of perceived needs for different categories is unique across students of different residency and gender. Results also indicate that the perceived need for assistance with STEM content is associated with lower CS academic performance. In contrast, perceived needs for professional skills and support services are not related to CS performance. Finally, students' ACT score is a good predictor of their academic performance.Originality/valueThis study provides important contributions to higher education and CS education literature. This is the first study with CS students focusing on their perceived needs. Also, this study includes an almost complete data set (94.6 percent survey completion rate) from CS students.

Abstract: The present new norm driven by the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us to remain at home and carry our everyday activities. This pandemic has seriously made a radical shift to the Malaysian education sector as well. Educators instantly begin to adopt Open and Distance Learning (ODL). However, issues arise in courses that need a conventional setting. In ODL, students and lecturers rely on digital tools, social media, pre-recorded video, and video conference to assist the learning process. Nonetheless, there are some concerns about how successful digital tools are among students in an online learning environment, particularly among computer science students. Thus, a study is being conducted to compare the acceptance of digital tools among computer science (CS) and non-computer science (NoNCS) students by adapting the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). A quantitative research method of convenient sampling was undertaken. Questionnaires were distributed through an online survey among UiTM Terengganu students at three campuses in Dungun, Bukit Besi and Kuala Terengganu. A sample of 367 students who responded from different diploma and degree programs was collected. Findings of the study revealed that all relationships in TAM are significant for both CS and NoNCS students, where both acquire positive perceived usefulness, attitude, and use intention. Thus, the acceptance of digital tools in ODL are justified. However, it appears that NoNCS students had a more positive attitude than CS students, contradicting the study's initial general assumption. More study is needed to discover why NoNCS students have a better attitude than CS students in the acceptance of digital tools during ODL.
 
 Keywords: Computer Science, COVID-19, Digital Tools, ODL, TAM

Although it is a requisite skill for success in industry, visual literacy in graphics is intimidating to computer science and art students. Computer science majors are uneasy about using their eyes to examine images while art students may not have much background in the technical terminology. This column is the second in a two-part series that discusses an interdisciplinary teaching technique that overcomes these obstacles. Part one was published in Computer Graphics 34(1) February 2000, pp. 24-26. With this approach students become more familiar with the limits and possibilities of the medium of computer graphics, learn how to analyze and talk about what visual images might mean and develop a deeper understanding of time constraints. In addition, they gain confidence with technological terminology and the idea of suggesting alternative algorithms to create a desired visual "look." As a result both computer science and art students become more able to communicate effectively about and with visual imagery.

We asked all of the liberal arts faculty who advise undergraduates on course selection at the 14 colleges in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest a series of questions regarding their perceptions of the personality traits of Computer Science (CS) students, topics they think are covered in CS classes, and their overall impressions of CS. Our goal was to test empirically the hypothesis that many non-CS faculty are unaware of the differences between CS and Information Technology (IT). We received over 200 survey responses, which revealed that, among non-CS faculty, 10% disagree or are neutral that CS should even be part of a liberal arts curriculum, 9% think that CS students are taught to fix printers and other peripherals, and 35% believe that CS students are taught to use Microsoft Word and Excel in their courses. Our results also revealed that 60% of CS faculty believe that men are more interested in CS than are women (although we did not ask why they believe this to be the case). Overall, while we found statistically significant differences between the answers given by CS and non-CS faculty, the overall evidence suggests that the majority of non-CS faculty in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest have a good understanding of CS.

This study aims to investigate the correlation between metacognitive and problem-solving skills among science students. The sample consisted of 32 students from departement of science education in Indonesia. This type of research is quantitative with the Pearson Product Moment Correlation method. The data were collected using a problem-solving test and a metacognitive awareness inventory (MAI). Technique of analyzing data uses the Pearson’correlation test by using IBM SPSS Statistics 26. Result of this research is there is a significant linear relationship between metacognitive and problem solving skills as the value of deviation from linearity is 0.225, which is greater than 0.05. The obtained Pearson correlation value of 0.382* also indicates a strong positive correlation (+0.382*) and a significant correlation (0.031<0.05) between the two variables. As a conclussion, there is a correlation between metacognitive and problem solving skills among science students. Further analysis revealed that students with higher metacognitive skills tended to perform better in problem-solving tasks, indicating the importance of metacognitive skills in science problem-solving. These findings suggest that promoting metacognitive awareness could enhance students' problem-solving abilities, and support the integration of metacognitive strategies in science education. These findings highlight the importance of promoting metacognitive awareness in learning process to enhance problem-solving skills by using innovative learning strategies.

Objectives . Although prior research has uncovered shifts in computer science (CS) students’ implicit beliefs about the nature of their intelligence across time, little research has investigated the factors contributing to these changes. To address this gap, two studies were conducted in which the relationship between ineffective self-regulation of learning experiences and CS students’ implicit intelligence beliefs at different times during the semester was assessed. Participants . Participants for Studies 1 (n = 536) and 2 (n = 222) were undergraduate students enrolled in introductory- and upper-level CS courses at a large, public, Midwestern university. Race-ethnicity information was not collected due to IRB concerns about possible secondary identification of participants from underrepresented groups. Study Method . Participants completed a condensed version of the Implicit Theories of Intelligence Scale [ 16 , 54 ] and the Lack of Regulation Scale from the Student Perceptions of Classroom Knowledge Building scale [ 51 , 53 ] at the beginning (Studies 1 and 2), middle (Study 2), and end (Studies 1 and 2) of semester-long undergraduate CS courses. Survey responses were analyzed using path analyses to investigate how students’ lack of regulation experiences throughout the semester predicted their implicit intelligence beliefs at the beginning (Study 2) and end (Studies 1 and 2) of the semester. Findings . Results from Study 1 indicate that undergraduate CS students come to more strongly believe that their intelligence is a fixed, unchanging entity from the beginning until the end of the semester. Moreover, participants’ responses to the lack of regulation scale were predictive of their implicit intelligence beliefs at the end of the semester. Results from Study 2 indicate that ineffective self-regulation experiences early in the semester enhance CS students’ belief in the unchanging nature of intelligence (i.e., during the first half of the semester). Taken altogether, these findings provide evidence that self-regulation experiences influence students’ beliefs about the malleability of intelligence. Conclusions . Findings align with Bandura's [ 4 ] contention that students’ behaviors and experiences influence their values and beliefs. Students who experienced poor self-regulated learning came to view intelligence as more of a fixed, unalterable entity than their more successfully self-regulated peers. Findings suggest that CS instructors can positively affect student motivation and engagement by embedding self-regulated learning strategy instruction into their courses and helping CS students adopt an incremental-oriented (e.g., growth-oriented) belief system about their intellectual abilities.

This study explores the changes in Computer Science (CS) students’ self-efficacy between entering study and the end of first year of university. It aims to give course leaders insights into the everyday challenges that affect students’ academic achievement and persistence into second year. The paper begins by proposing that the way CS is taught, the gender imbalance on CS courses, and the experience of the key transitional year into university might influence CS students’ non-continuation. It adopts an academic buoyancy conceptualisation of resilience. Acknowledging the scarcity of instruments covering CS students’ transition to university, the development of a new 20-item questionnaire is described, based on CS students’ own contributions of the challenges they faced during first year. The instrument is administered twice in one session to the same cohort. Analysis of paired responses indicates a loss of confidence to overcome challenges in most aspects, particularly staying motivated to study.

Background: People who are racialized, gendered, or otherwise minoritized are underrepresented in computing professions in North America. This is reflected in undergraduate computer science (CS) programs, in which students from marginalized backgrounds continue to experience inequities that do not typically affect White cis-men. This is especially true for Black students in general, and Black women in particular, whose experience of systemic, anti-Black racism compromises their ability to persist and thrive in CS education contexts. Objectives: This systematic mapping study endeavours to (1) determine the quantity of existing non-deficit-based studies concerned with the persistence of Black students in undergraduate CS; (2) summarize the findings and recommendations in those studies; and (3) identify areas in which additional studies may be required. We aim to accomplish these objectives by way of two research questions: (RQ1) What factors are associated with Black students’ persistence in undergraduate CS programs?; and (RQ2) What recommendations have been made to further bolster Black students’ persistence in undergraduate CS education programs? Methods: This systematic mapping study was conducted in accordance with PRISMA 2020 and SEGRESS guidelines. Studies were identified by conducting keyword searches in seven databases. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were designed to capture studies illuminating persistence factors for Black students in undergraduate CS programs. To ensure the completeness of our search results, we engaged in snowballing and an expert-based search to identify additional studies of interest. Finally, data were collected from each study to address the research questions outlined above. Results: Using the methods outlined above, we identified 16 empirical studies, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods studies informed by a range of theoretical frameworks. Based on data collected from the primary studies in our sample, we identified 13 persistence factors across four categories: (I) social capital, networking, & support; (II) career & professional development; (III) pedagogical & programmatic interventions; and (IV) exposure & access. This data-collection process also yielded 26 recommendations across six stakeholder groups: (i) researchers; (ii) colleges and universities; (iii) the computing industry; (iv) K-12 systems and schools; (v) governments; and (vi) parents. Conclusion: This systematic mapping study resulted in the identification of numerous persistence factors for Black students in CS. Crucially, however, these persistence factors allow Black students to persist, but not thrive, in CS. Accordingly, we contend that more needs to be done to address the systemic inequities faced by Black people in general, and Black women in particular, in computing programs and professions. As evidenced by the relatively small number of primary studies captured by this systematic mapping study, there exists an urgent need for additional, asset-based empirical studies involving Black students in CS. In addition to foregrounding the intersectional experiences of Black women in CS, future studies should attend to the currently understudied experiences of Black men.

Empathy is considered a vital trait in helping professions such as doctor, psychologist or nurse, while less important in technical professions such as IT specialist. The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in empathy level between medical (doctor and nursing), psychology and computer science students. For this purpose, 243 students of psychology, nursing, medicine, and computer science completed an online survey containing a short version of the Empathy Quotient (EQ-Short) questionnaire which measures affective and cognitive empathy. Results showed that psychology, medical and computer science students differed significantly in their level of empathy. Psychology students scored highest, medical majors scored medium, and computer science students scored lowest. On average, women, regardless of the field of study, had a higher empathy trait level than men, which was in line with previous studies regarding gender differences in this trait. Students of helping professions: psychology and medical faculties showed a higher level of empathy than computer science students. Discrepancies in existing data suggest a need for further research regarding differences in empathy levels and its changes in psychology and medical students.