Stereotypes often assume an implicit role in many gender studies. This paper describes a study in which the internal validity of gender stereotypes in a computing course is explored. Students' self-perceptions and common research positions in the literature are compared to these stereotypes. The study offers results different from most located in the literature. Further work is therefore suggested by the outcomes of this research to determine if this represents a favourable shift in the way in which women approach the discipline.
Computer Science Education is gradually emerging as a valid research focus within the wider computer science community. This paper presents an account of a successful subject that offers senior undergraduates experience of research using Computer Science Education as the focus. The paper is not itself a research paper, but advocates a role for CS Ed as an undergraduate research focus and offers a case study of a successful implementation of such a programme.
When studying a programming language for the first time, the majority of student errors fall into broad (and well-documented) categories [3]. This paper aims to investigate errors made by first year students in Blue: A new, object-oriented language specifically designed at the University of Sydney for teaching novice students [2]. These errors were investigated by a survey delivered over the World-Wide Web and consisting of multiple choice and freeform short-answer questions. The results of the survey suggest that a student who learns with Blue is no more likely to make errors that are commonly made by novice programmers, although is not necessarily better equipped to design and write code in an objectoriented paradigm. More research is indicated to make statements about the latter.
Economic rationalism, which rests decision-making power with market forces, has established a ubiquitous presence on a global scale. Certainly, educational administrators are feeling the effects of economic rationalist policies and in turn make managerial decisions that reflect this essence to the practising academic and, ultimately, to the classroom. The effect is often one of despair. Teaching - long pitted against other roles of the academic, such as research - now faces additional threats from the pressures to operate in this environment, often regarded as antagonistic to the traditional values of liberal university education. This paper discusses the nature of economic rationalism using the Australian context as an example, and presents some means by which teaching in computer science may respond to this threat in pedagogically sound ways. Such negotiations are essential in approaching a future for CS education in which this policy context is almost guaranteed.
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