Special Session

Abstract

As a form of active learning, POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning) engages students by grouping them in teams to work collaboratively through activities and construct their own understanding of computer science content. POGIL activities are carefully designed to foster student learning by guiding students through a learning cycle of exploration, concept invention and application. Computer science assignments typically emphasize application questions and problems, where students are expected to apply the new concept to different applications (e.g., writing multiple programs involving while-loops). In contrast, POGIL activities require students to first explore a model, possibly by asking critical thinking questions about some code and its output, before leading students to recognize patterns in the model, thereby helping them to form a better understanding of the new CS concept. Only after students have explored and developed an understanding of the concept, do the POGIL activities proceed to more traditional application questions. Studies of POGIL's effectiveness in STEM classrooms have generally found that (1) attrition is lower for POGIL than for traditional courses; (2) content mastery is greater than for traditional instruction; (3) students prefer POGIL over traditional methods; (4) students have more positive attitudes about the course and the instructors; and (5) learning skills appear to improve during the course. These advantages have drawn many Computer Science instructors to adopt POGIL in their classrooms, but very few instructors are developing POGIL activities for Python, even though Python lends itself well to learning cycle questions as an interpreted language. All CS instructors, but especially Python instructors, can benefit from adding exploration and concept invention questions to assignments before asking application questions.The growing popularity of Jupyter Notebooks makes it even easier for instructors to embed learning cycle questions in Python (or any other Jupyter supported programming language). This special session will provide SIGCSE attendees the opportunity to experience a CS POGIL activity for themselves, before introducing attendees to the learning cycle. Attendees will be view several examples of exploration and concept invention questions, which should be helpful to anyone creating CS assignments, not just POGIL instructors. The presenters will provide a short tour of two collections of POGIL activities in Python before the question and answer period.