Journal 2
Journal 2
From the many MTP courses I have taken so far, the concept of constructivism and student-centered learning has always been at the forefront. However, as a new teacher, I still struggle with implementing these concepts concretely in my classes. In the Philosophy of Education MTP course, we learned about the concept of praxis - the intersection of pedagogical theory and our own practice. I had (and still have) quite a difficult time trying to reconcile my lack of praxis in the courses that I teach. I know what I should be doing because I have taken MTP, but knowing is only half the battle. How can I actually implement these constructivist learning theories in my classroom? That is where CKID came to the rescue. By spending thoughtful hours reading about studies done with Computer Science students - the very same students that sit in my classroom - I am able to start building a bridge between my praxis. In other words, I am now learning how to take the pedagogical theory and apply it to my specific context in Computer Science. I remember the feeling when I found my first solid article for the literature review. The fact that the article was citing pedagogical theories that I already knew in combination with the context of Computer Science was mind blowing!
I learned from @ben-davidkolikant2018 that Computer Science students searching the internet while debugging can be a perilous journey. Before, I assumed that the students would naturally get better at coming up with search terms like I did when I was in school. This is most likely the case, but what the article made me realize was that I can actually employ instructional strategies in my courses to make the students practice good search techniques that will yield fruitful results. Instead of being focused on the answer, the students first need to learn how to ask the right question.
I learned from @chmiel2004 and @fitzgerald2010 that Computer Science students learning the process of debugging is complex and there are many cognitive processes involved. Before, I would not focus on the process of debugging at all in my course material. It is something that just naturally comes up during lab time when students are working on their assignments. When they inevitably get stuck and cannot figure out what is going wrong, they call me over and I help them debug. While helping them, it is a very one-on-one process where I leave the student with some helpful debugging techniques. However, the article made me realize that the process of debugging can actually be one that I formalize with learning objectives and tackle with instructional strategies. I will not list them all here, but there are several debugging exercises I learned from the articles that I want to now try with my students.
I learned from @murphy-hill2014 and @marques2018 that learning through collaboration is important for Computer Science students. We've seen social constructivism many times in the MTP, but again, having it explained and studied within the context of Computer Science was that much more helpful. Most of the work in my courses is solo, but there's no reason it needs to be. From my experience in the industry in fact, I have never worked solo save for my freelance work. All of the software companies I've worked for I've had to collaborate with teammates. What I would like to do now is bring in this aspect of collaboration into the process of learning Computer Science.
Metacognition is spoken about in every MTP course I've taken so far. I'm ashamed to admit it, but active metacognition is all but absent in the courses I teach. Again, the idea of praxis presents itself in my pedagogical life. Several of the articles I researched had a metacognitive component to the experiments where students would have to answer questions and reflect on the task they had just completed. I always tell my students when they are in the middle of debugging that they must first separate what is happening versus what they want to happen. I find that this is a nice parallel to the aspect of metacognition which is distinguishing between things that you do know from the things that you do not. I now have many ideas about how to incorporate the practice of active metacognition specifically within the context of my Computer Science courses - and I'm excited to try them out!
Self-Reflection
Writing this journal was a nice way to take stock of my amazing introduction to the world of academic research this semester. An exciting prospect to me is being able to take the research and apply it concretely to my teaching practice. One thing I need to reflect on further and always keep in mind is that I should not try to introduce many different new ideas into my courses at once as I think that would be a recipe for disaster. One at a time! The research process for this course has been eye-opening. I learned that there is a metric ton of studies out there for how Computer Science students learn, and I have only barely scratched the top-most molecule of this research mountain.