Assistant Professor of Computer Science Colleen Lewis received the Chair\u2019s Award at the International Computing Education Research Conference (ICER) last month in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
The award recognizes the best research paper presented at the conference.<\/p>\n
Lewis received the award for her paper, \u201cTracking Program State: A Key Challenge in Learning to Program,\u201d which shares the case study of a middle-school student\u2019s experience debugging a computer program he had written.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe take-away from the paper is that we should help students recognize what they should be paying attention to within the programming environment. A particularly important thing to pay attention to is the state\u2014all the variables that are relevant to how the computer program runs,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cI was pleased during the presentation that the attendees took seriously what we could learn from analyzing a single student\u2019s experience. This reaction was surprising and encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewis conducted her research in 2009 while pursuing graduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley. She collected her data during a summer enrichment program that taught computer science to students entering the 6th grade. With parental and student consent, she recorded the students\u2019 work and conversations that took place within the programming environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis type of qualitative, close analysis of individual students engaged in authentic behavior is rare within computer science education,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Lewis joined the Harvey Mudd College faculty this fall. She earned her bachelor\u2019s degree (electrical engineering and computer science, 2005), her master\u2019s degree (computer science, 2009) and her doctorate (science and mathematics education, 2012) from UC Berkeley. Her research focuses on computer science education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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