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Remedying misperceptions of computer science among middle school students

Published: 05 March 2014 Publication History

Abstract

Past research extensively points to gross misperceptions of the discipline of Computer Science among students in middle and high school. As efforts to introduce computing education in K-12 gains traction in tandem with initiatives that address issues of interest and attitudes towards CS, misperceptions of computing as a discipline must also be addressed as early as middle school, which is known to be a key time for identity building. This paper shares the results of a curricular intervention that aims to show CS to students in a new light - in real world contexts and as a creative and problem-solving discipline; as something bigger and broader than the "computer-centric" view that students are known to harbor.

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Cited By

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  • (2024)Exploring Students' Experiences of Computer Science in Upper Secondary Education: A Qualitative StudyProceedings of the 2024 Conference on United Kingdom & Ireland Computing Education Research10.1145/3689535.3689551(1-7)Online publication date: 5-Sep-2024
  • (2024)“Show Them the Playbook That These Companies Are Using”: Youth Voices about Why Computer Science Education Must Center Discussions of Power, Ethics, and Culturally Responsive ComputingACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/366064524:3(1-21)Online publication date: 23-Apr-2024
  • (2024)Gender differences in computing interest: the role of social constructs in early pathsComputer Science Education10.1080/08993408.2024.2433354(1-33)Online publication date: 10-Dec-2024
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cover image ACM Conferences
SIGCSE '14: Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
March 2014
800 pages
ISBN:9781450326056
DOI:10.1145/2538862
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 05 March 2014

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Author Tags

  1. K-12 curriculum development
  2. computer science education
  3. definition of computer science
  4. identity
  5. middle school
  6. perceptions of computing

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SIGCSE '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 108 of 274 submissions, 39%;
Overall Acceptance Rate 1,595 of 4,542 submissions, 35%

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Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Exploring Students' Experiences of Computer Science in Upper Secondary Education: A Qualitative StudyProceedings of the 2024 Conference on United Kingdom & Ireland Computing Education Research10.1145/3689535.3689551(1-7)Online publication date: 5-Sep-2024
  • (2024)“Show Them the Playbook That These Companies Are Using”: Youth Voices about Why Computer Science Education Must Center Discussions of Power, Ethics, and Culturally Responsive ComputingACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/366064524:3(1-21)Online publication date: 23-Apr-2024
  • (2024)Gender differences in computing interest: the role of social constructs in early pathsComputer Science Education10.1080/08993408.2024.2433354(1-33)Online publication date: 10-Dec-2024
  • (2024)AMBYInternational Journal of Child-Computer Interaction10.1016/j.ijcci.2023.10061838:COnline publication date: 27-Feb-2024
  • (2024)Adaptation of the Computational Thinking Skills Assessment Tool (TechCheck-K) in Early ChildhoodJournal of Science Education and Technology10.1007/s10956-023-10089-233:3(365-382)Online publication date: 2-Jan-2024
  • (2023)CS Outreach to Inform Secondary School Students' Perceptions of CS: Initial FindingsProceedings of the 18th WiPSCE Conference on Primary and Secondary Computing Education Research10.1145/3605468.3609758(1-6)Online publication date: 27-Sep-2023
  • (2023)Engaging Primary and Secondary School Students in Computer Science Through Computational Thinking TrainingIEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing10.1109/TETC.2022.316365011:1(56-69)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2023
  • (2023)Reconfiguring science education through caring human inquiry and design with petsJournal of the Learning Sciences10.1080/10508406.2023.222899032:4-5(487-533)Online publication date: 22-Aug-2023
  • (2023)The Unsolved Mystery of the Gender Imbalance in ITReconstructions of Gender and Information Technology10.1007/978-981-99-5187-1_2(21-39)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2023
  • (2023)Students’ Perceptions of Computer Science and the Role of GenderComputer Supported Education10.1007/978-3-031-40501-3_6(125-148)Online publication date: 7-Aug-2023
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