Title
How Student Centered is the Computer Science Classroom? A Survey of College Faculty.
Abstract
Student-centered instructional practices structure a class so that students interact with each other, engage deeply with the content, and receive formative feedback. These evidence-based practices benefit all students but are particularly effective with underrepresented learners, including women and members of other minority groups. To what extent have computer science (CS) faculty embraced these strategies? We surveyed over 700 U.S. faculty to find out. Results suggest that female faculty, associate professors, and those teaching courses with enrollment above 80 students are more likely to use these student-centered practices. Across all responses, 20% of faculty use student--student interaction on a regular basis during class. In contrast, 38% of faculty rely on lectures for content delivery. Results were also compared with published data for other academic disciplines. CS faculty are less likely to use these practices compared to their non-STEM colleagues but more likely to use these practices compared to other STEM discipline faculty. Overall, CS faculty have adopted student-centered practices to some degree, but our community should strive for higher adoption rates to help as many students as possible learn and remain in computer science.
Year
DOI
Venue
2017
10.1145/3143200
TOCE
Keywords
Field
DocType
Instructional practice, active learning, evidence-based instructional practices, instructor-centered, studentcentered
Medical education,Content delivery,Active learning,Discipline,Formative assessment
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
18
1
1946-6226
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
4
0.47
5
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Scott Grissom117187.64
Renée A. McCauley2407.08
Laurie Murphy326324.95