Problem Solving in Computer Science Education: Consciousness or Mind-Set?

• In Event: Changing the Professional Formation of Engineers: Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments

Abstract

Purpose
The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a Hispanic-Serving Institution in a region of Texas with the lowest median income. The vision for the Computer Science (CS) Department is to re-imagine what it means to learn, whose knowledge counts, and what counts as knowledge in the context of computer science education (CSE). The overarching purpose of this project is to expand curriculum in CSE to one that builds on students’ funds of knowledge (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005) and considers societal and global contexts in problem solving.

Theoretical framework
We use sociocultural theories of learning, which situate knowledge as co-constructed, (Vygostky, 1978; Lave, 1988; Lave & Wenger, 1991) to study the role of social interaction on learning. Our interest in understanding the relationship between knowledge and identity formation is based on the view that “learning and teaching are fundamentally cultural processes” (Nasir, Roseberry, Warren & Lee, 2006, p. 489); and thus, efforts to radically transform curriculum involve changing “collective understandings of the routine language and social practices of daily life and their relations to the practices of academic disciplines” (p. 499).

Methods & data sources
To generate new understandings about the sociocultural processes involved in transforming curriculum, we are conducting an ethnographic study. Ethnographic research aims to understand social life in a particular context by exploring how people in that context grapple to make shared meaning about what they do, why they do what they do and how they do what they do (Emerson, Fretz & Shaw, 2011). This study uses participant observations and phenomenological interviews with students, faculty, and industry to explore social processes involved in expanding curriculum and the potential for change to construct new ways of doing, being, and knowing in CSE.

Results & Scholarly significance
Although engineers are thought to be problem solvers (Jonassen, Strobel, & Lee, 2006), there is a lack of studies on how students are socialized to become problem solvers. Our analysis of preliminary findings provides early insights into students’ emergent understandings about problem solving in the context of a required introductory CS course. In sum, we discovered that students who had no prior exposure to coding viewed problem solving as processual, nonlinear, and co-constructed; a phenomenon, which we refer to as problem solving as consciousness because of the emphasis on metacognitive as well as social awareness implicit in the activity of problem solving. In contrast, we found that students with prior exposure to coding defined problem solving as a method according to which an individual solves a problem by disassembling it into smaller parts, thusly characterizing problem solving in technical and linear terms. We refer to this as problem solving as mindset; problem solving as mindset points to a common belief, which equates coding with CS. Problem solving is an essential part of CS and needs to be examined further. Preliminary findings from this study provide an important starting point.

Authors

• Christina Convertino, The University of Texas - El Paso

• Angelica Monarrez, University of Texas at El Paso