From Engagement to Identity: The Role of Affect in Computing Education

• In Event: Unpacking Situated Perspectives on Identity, Engagement, and Motivation: Implications for Designing Equitable Learning Environments

Abstract

Objectives and Theoretical Perspective
The data shared in this project build on decades of scholarship on participatory identity (Author, 2015; Nasir, 2002), that is, patterns in how learners relate to and respond to aspects of the learning environment. Although participatory identity is central to learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991), it encompasses both how students engage information as well as aspects that are central to motivation, such as persisting versus giving up. However, this is just one aspect of identity. Equally important is the related concept of narrative identity—that is, the stories we tell about ourselves (Author, 2019; Heyd-Metzuyanim & Sfard, 2012). Taken together, these two forms of identity help to account for the decisions we make both in moments of interaction—trying a new strategy rather than giving up, and over time—signing up for the next math class in the sequence rather than changing your major. An important question is how these two connect—how do moments of participation accrue in such a way that they become part of particular stories that people tell about themselves?

Research Focus
In this analysis, we look to one element of engagement—affect—for clues about the relationship between these two aspects of identity. Specifically, we ask how to design activities that offer opportunities to try and to fail, and support students to persist even in the face of challenge. We ask how students experience these spaces, and whether and how moments of joy and celebration might serve to elevate and mark participation as indicators of personal identity.

Data Collection and Analysis
Data for this analysis comes from screen captures of students who were enrolled in a free coding camp called Code Your Art, focusing on times when students were working on debugging activities. These activities involved presenting code that was deliberately broken, and asking students to fix it, a task that could be accomplished in multiple ways (see Figure 1 for an example). We examined data of students working through these activities across two years of camp (n = 16), focusing on activities that were parallel across the years. In reviewing students’ work, we attended to the nature of their engagement (how were they approaching and solving the problems); the ways that work was distributed collaboratively between students and between students and teachers; and students’ apparent feelings about or reactions to their work.

Results and Significance
Our analyses highlighted significant celebration at the completion of debugging activities, and that the celebrations seemed to be heightened in relation to frustration. However, this frustration was almost always followed by persistence through a challenge coupled with the opportunity to create, design, and problem-solve with agency. Whole group discussions and interviews offer insight into the ways these moments were salient and important to students. As one student shared: “I started to say I got frustrated on the first one, but then once I started to get used to them it started to get easier and it was fun.”

Authors

• Melissa Sommefeld Gresalfi, Vanderbilt University

• Madison Knowe, Vanderbilt University