"What I Can and Cannot Do": Self-Assessment and Learners' Construction of Agentive Selves in Computing

• In Event: 30.060 - Computational Learning Environments: Access, Equity, and Agency

Abstract

To address a need for a more computationally literate population, we need to better understand the processes by which students engage with computer science. We thus designed a pilot study to explore how students come to identify with computer science. Specifically, how does engaging in making and take-apart activities impact students’ sense of agency and their identification of possible futures involving computing? In this paper, we analyze the multiple selves enacted by two participants in a hands-on computing intervention, how their confidence and self-assessments shifted from pre- to post-intervention, and how those shifts marked the beginnings of the creation of agentive selves in computing.

Authors

• Christina Pei, Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy Learning Sciences

• Corey Brady, Vanderbilt University - Peabody College

• Uri J. Wilensky, Northwestern University