Impact of Giving Students a Choice of Homework Assignments in an Introductory Computer Science Class

Fulton, Steven; Schweitzer, Dino

doi:10.20429/ijsotl.2011.050120

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…This has not necessarily been the case with other studies in the literature, which have also found that giving limited choice in the type of assignments or homework students can result in greater gains on assessments. Fulton and Schweitzer (2011) found that giving students a choice in the type of final class assignment (one defined as easier, the other more challenging) in a computer science class resulted in lower performing students choosing an easier assignment option and therefore learning less than their peers. However, similar to this study, in a meta-study literature analysis on the effects of choice in a variety of settings, Katz and Assor (2007) found that choice motivates students when the choices are limited and aligned with student interests and goals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contextual Choices in Online Physics Problems: Promising Insights Into Closing the Gender Gap

Wheeler

Blanchard

2019

Front. Psychol.

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Throughout the world, female students are less likely than males to take advanced physics courses. This mixed-methods study uses a concurrent, nested design to study an online homework intervention designed to address choice and achievement. A choice of three different contexts (biological, sports, and traditional) were offered to students for each physics problem, intending to stimulate females’ interest and enhance achievement. Informed by aspects of Artino’s social-cognitive model of academic motivation and emotion, we investigated: Which context of physics problems do males and females select?; What explanations do students give for their choices?; Are there differences in the achievement of males and females?; and Is there a relationship between student achievement and the context selected? Fifty-two high school physics students from five US states participated. Data included pre- and post-Force Concept Inventory scores, homework context choices and achievement, and rationales for choices. Findings indicate that females were most likely to select biology contexts; males, traditional. All students made more attempts on video questions over word questions, although females did not score as well. For all questions, students generally persisted until they answered them correctly, with females taking fewer attempts on problems. Context choice was mostly driven by interest, for males, and perceptions of difficulty level for females; however, rationales were indistinguishable by gender. On their first homework question attempt, females scored significantly better than the males. Initially, males had significantly higher FCI scores; post homework intervention, females increased their mean scores significantly on the FCI, erasing the initial gender gap, with no growth nor decline in males’ scores. Females with FCI growth were equally as likely to choose biology contexts as traditional contexts; males were more likely to choose biology contexts. Findings from this study suggest that modest changes to homework problems that provide choice and make the physics problems more contextually interesting—even without changes in classroom instruction—could increase interest and motivation in students and increase achievement for both male and female students. Recommendations will be discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contextual Choices in Online Physics Problems: Promising Insights Into Closing the Gender Gap

Wheeler

Blanchard

2019

Front. Psychol.

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“…Den relativt ensidiga skriftliga uppgiftsformen kan å andra sidan i enlighet med Fidaldo och Turman (2017) inverka negativt på studenternas lärprocess. En mer varierad form av uppgifter kan vara positivt ur flera aspekter (Fulton & Schweitzer, 2011). Resultatet kan tolkas som att uppgifterna i sin formulering visar på normativa inslag snarare än att ge studenterna frihet att själva forma uppgifterna.…”

Section: Diskussionunclassified

“…Den kunskapsmediering som uppgiften skulle vara ett led i går på det sättet förlorad (Säljö, 2013). För de studenter med ingen eller liten erfarenhet av akademiskt skrivande och den akademiska kunskapskulturen kan den friare formen av uppgiftsbeskrivning vara alltför bristfällig för att understödja studenternas lärprocess (Fulton & Schweitzer, 2011). Ask (2007) pekar på vikten av att kravet på den kritiskt analytiska förmågan tydligt framgår i uppgifterna och menar att det inte kan ses som självklart för studenterna att uppfatta att detta ingår som krav.…”

Section: Diskussionunclassified

Uppgifter som medierande artefakter inom yrkeslärarutbildningen

All¹,

Pettersson

Teräs

2018

NJVET

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Vocational teacher students accomplish a number of different assignments, which are meaningful for their learning and future work as vocational teachers. In Sweden, this education is relatively short (90 ECTS), partly conducted as distance education. The students enter the education with previous vocational knowledge and experiences. The aim of this study was to explore and describe assignments the students face during their vocational teacher education. The study questions focused on what is a form of assignment as mediating artefact and what kind of vocational knowledge is required? Conceptual background involved the concepts of mediation, artefact, vocational knowledge and knowledge culture. The data consisted of 13 course overviews. The results suggested dominance of individual written assignments. Even though some assignments were identified as 'doings' like teaching. The assignments were complex involving several vocational knowledge dimensions and the students needed to navigate between different knowledge domains. Furthermore, the students were asked to integrate their previous vocational knowledge with pedagogical knowledge. The assignments as mediating artefacts were connected to different knowledge cultures.

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“…Offering learners a choice in their assignments empowers them to take control, providing ownership of their learning process and motivating them to be engaged. This leads to increased interest and increased time spent on the chosen assignment [18]. The freedom to choose what, when, and how to contribute in the learning process can motivate learners to actively participate and accomplish more [19].…”

Section: Background Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing Voluntary and Mandatory Gameplay

Kuindersma

Pal

Herik

et al. 2016

IJSG

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Gameplay is commonly considered to be a voluntary activity. Game designers generally believe that voluntary gameplay is essentially different from mandatory gameplay. Such a belief may be a challenge for serious games, as instruction is usually mandatory. The article describes the outcomes of two experiments on the impact of voluntariness on the learning effect and enjoyment of a serious game. In the first experiment freedom of choosing to play a serious game was studied, with participants who had volunteered to participate. The results suggested that, contrary to the opinion of many game designers, being required to play a serious game does not automatically take the fun out of the game. The second experiment had voluntary participants and mandatory participants, who had to participate as part of a homework assignment. The outcomes show that mandatory participants enjoyed the game as much as the voluntary participants, even if they had to play the game for a minimum required time. These studies indicate that mandatory gameplay does not reduce enjoyment and learning effect.

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Impact of Giving Students a Choice of Homework Assignments in an Introductory Computer Science Class

Abstract: Becker, K. (2006). How much choice is too much? Paper presented at the Working group reports on ITiCSE on Innovation and technology in computer science education.

Cited by 10 publications

References 10 publications

Contextual Choices in Online Physics Problems: Promising Insights Into Closing the Gender Gap

Contextual Choices in Online Physics Problems: Promising Insights Into Closing the Gender Gap

Uppgifter som medierande artefakter inom yrkeslärarutbildningen

Comparing Voluntary and Mandatory Gameplay

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