Sarah B. Berenson

Voices of women in a software engineering course: reflections on collaboration

Those science, mathematics, and engineering faculty who are serious about making the education they offer as available to their daughters as to their sons are, we posit, facing the prospect of dismantling a large part of its traditional pedagogical structure, along with the assumptions and practice which support it. [Seymour and Hewett 1997].Prior research indicates that female students can be concerned about the insularity of working alone for long periods of time, as they perceive to be the case with computer science and information technology careers. We studied an advanced undergraduate software engineering course at North Carolina State University to characterize the potential of collaborative learning environments created via pair-programming and agile software development to ameliorate this concern. A collective case study of three representative women in the course revealed that they held the following four themes in common: working with others; productivity; confidence; and interest in IT careers. Three conjectures concerning collaboration emerged from our study, including the importance of face-to-face meetings, an increased confidence among women based on product quality, and a reduction in the amount of time spent on assignments. While our findings are not generalized to early undergraduate courses, the young women we studied were at a critical junction in deciding whether to pursue a career in IT upon their near-term graduation. Additionally, we propose a model for future testing with both males and females that connects these three factors with an increased interest in IT careers.

Using Classroom Discourse To Understand a Prospective Mathematics Teacher's Developing Practice.

This is an interpretive study of a prospective mathematics teacher’s emerging practice during the professional semester. A Vygotskian (Mind in Society, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 1978 (Cole et al., Trans.; original work published 1934); Thought and Language, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 1986 (Kozulin, Trans.; original work published 1934)) perspective was used to examine the nature of classroom discourse and its role in Mary Ann’s (pseudonym) development while student teaching. Results indicate that early classroom discourse mediated Mary Ann’s teaching toward a traditional paradigm of giving information. Moreover, her subsequent e!orts to cultivate dialogic discourse generated con#ict that positioned students as mediators of her practice. Ultimately, experiencing the power and diversity of students’ ideas contributed to shifts in Mary Ann’s early forms of practice. ( 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Undergraduate student perceptions of pair programming and agile software methodologies: verifying a model of social interaction

One of the reasons that undergraduate students, particularly women and minorities, can become disenchanted with computer science education is because software development is wrongly characterized as a solitary activity. We conducted a collective case study in a software engineering course at North Carolina State University to ascertain the effects of a collaborative pedagogy intervention on student perceptions. The pedagogy intervention was based upon the practices of agile software development with a focus on pair programming. Six representative students in the course participated in the study. Their perspectives helped validate a social interaction model of student views. The findings suggest that pair programming and agile software methodologies contribute to more effective learning opportunities for computer science students and that students understand and appreciate these benefits.

Exploring a Pedagogy for the Supervision of Prospective Mathematics Teachers.

Our investigation explored a pedagogy for supervision through a case study of one prospective middle school mathematics teacher during her student teaching semester. Classroom observations by the university supervisor, teaching episode interviews between the supervisor and student teacher, and focused journal reflections by the student teacher were coordinated to challenge the student teachers existing models of teaching. The emerging pedagogy of the teaching episodes, a central focus of this study, was characterized by (a)the use of open-ended questions that centered the student teacher in the process of sense making; (b) a shift away from the supervisors direct, authoritative evaluations of the student teachers practice; (c) a sustained focus throughout supervision derived from the student teachers classroom experiences; and(d) an effort to maintain sensitivity to the student teachers zone of proximal development. We found our approach to be coincident with the notion of instructional conversation (IC)advanced by Gallimore and Goldenberg (1992).The nature of the teaching episodes seemed to open the student teachers zone of proximal development so that her practice of teaching could be mediated with the assistance of a more knowing other.

A comparison of ratios and fractions and their roles as tools in proportional reasoning

Abstract In an attempt to develop our shared understanding of the relationship between ratios and fractions, we began a phenomenological study to gather evidence from teachers and textbooks and to collect evidence from our own experiences. In this article, we present five possible models for this relationship and a summary of evidence to support each. We also present the model that we developed to represent our shared understanding and provide the results of a study for which we have used our model to help us analyze students’ uses of ratios and fractions in their solutions to proportion-related problems.

How and Why Collaborative Software Development Impacts the Software Engineering Course

This paper presents the results of an initial quantitative investigation to assess a variety of factors that potentially affect the collaborative software development experience. This research was conducted with 119 students in two undergraduate software engineering classes at North Carolina State University. A survey was administered where students could reflect on their collaborative experiences. We analyzed these factors for interrelationships as well as for correlations with performance in the course, grade point average, and SAT scores. Our findings support the components of the proposed Social Interaction Model of Pair Programming. The substantiation of the Social Interaction Model of Pair Programming values suggests that they should be considered in course planning. We also find that work ethic and self-perceived programming ability positively correlate with GPA