http://hdl.handle.net/2160/642 Tue, 21 May 2013 15:12:39 GMT 2013-05-21T15:12:39Z http://hdl.handle.net/2160/7703 Students' perceptions of the differences between formal and informal learning Eckerdal, Anna; Sanders, Kate; Boustedt, Jonas; Thomas, Lynda; McCartney, Robert Research has shown that most learning in the workplace takes place outside of formal training and, given the swiftly changing nature of the field, computer science graduates more than most workers, need to be able to learn computing topics outside of organized classes. In this paper we discuss students' perceptions of the difference between formal and informal learning of computing topics, based on three datasets: essays collected from a technical writing course at a single university; the results of a brainstorming exercise conducted in the same course; and semi-structured interviews conducted at six institutions in three countries. The students report strengths and weaknesses in informal learning. On the one hand, they are motivated, can choose their level of learning, can be more flexible about how they learn, and often retain the material better. On the other hand, they perceive that they may miss important aspects of a topic, learn in an ad hoc way, and have difficulty assessing their learning. Jonas Boustedt, Anna Eckerdal, Robert McCartney, Kate Sanders, Lynda Thomas, and Carol Zander. 2011. Students' perceptions of the differences between formal and informal learning. In Proceedings of the seventh international workshop on Computing education research (ICER '11). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 61-68. Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2160/7703 2011-11-23T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2160/7144 Harnessing surprise: tales from students' transformational biographies Eckerdal, Anna; Zander, Carol; Thomas, Lynda Transformational biographies are used to shed light on situations when students have experienced 'surprise.' These biographies are examined in light of a philosophical position that surprise is useful in engendering learning, and, that as educators, we should try and set up situations in which our students experience it more often. The paper reports on a grounded-theory inspired examination of 108 students' transformational biographies for evidence of surprise. Students clearly perceived an 'anomaly or contradiction to a previous belief or understanding' in just under half of them. The paper then goes on to further identify different kinds of surprise and the triggers that caused them and concludes with suggestions for enhancing learning by capitalizing on students' surprise. Lynda Thomas, Carol Zander, and Anna Eckerdal. 2010. Harnessing surprise: tales from students' transformational biographies. In Proceedings of the 41st ACM technical symposium on Computer science education (SIGCSE '10). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 300-304. Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2160/7144 2011-07-15T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2160/7143 Computing students learning computing informally Thomas, Lynda; Mostrom, Jan Erik; Sanders, Kate; Zander, Carol; Eckerdal, Anna; McCartney, Robert In this paper we present background and early results from an investigation of how computing students learn computer science topics through informal means, that is, outside of organized classes. We provide some overall perspective by discussing the variety of research areas that fall under the general 'informal learning' name. From there we propose specific research questions that concern what the students learn, what resources they bring to bear, what strategies they employ, and how they evaluate their progress. Preliminary results indicate that students primarily learn specific technologies, and that both their motivation and evaluation are closely tied to projects (at school, work, or home). Robert McCartney, Anna Eckerdal, Jan Erik Mostr\&\#246;m, Kate Sanders, Lynda Thomas, and Carol Zander. 2010. Computing students learning computing informally. In Proceedings of the 10th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli Calling '10). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 43-48. Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2160/7143 2011-07-15T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2160/7142 An evaluation of object oriented example programs in introductory programming textbooks Sanders, Kate; Nordström, Marie; Schulte, Carsten; Hall, Mark; Thomas, Lynda; Paterson, James; Börstler, Jurgen Research shows that examples play an important role for cognitive skill acquisition. Students as well as teachers rank examples as important resources for learning to program. Therefore examples must be consistent with the principles and rules of the topics we are teaching. However, educators often struggle to find or develop objectoriented example programs of high quality. Common examples are often perceived as not fully faithful to all principles and guidelines of the object-oriented paradigm, or as not following general pedagogical principles and practices. Unless students are able to engage with good examples, they will not be able to tell desirable from undesirable properties in their own and others' programs. In this paper we report on a study in which experienced educators reviewed a wide range of object-oriented examples for novices from popular textbooks. This review was accomplished using an on-line checklist that elicited responses on 10 quality factors. Results show that the evaluation instrument provides a sufficiently consistent set of responses to distinguish examples. The paper then goes on to examine some of the characteristics of good and bad examples and how this study will influence the evolution of the evaluating instrument. Jürgen Börstler, Mark S. Hall, Marie Nordström, James H. Paterson, Kate Sanders, Carsten Schulte, and Lynda Thomas. 2010. An evaluation of object oriented example programs in introductory programming textbooks. SIGCSE Bull. 41, 4 (January 2010), 126-143. Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2160/7142 2011-07-15T00:00:00Z