Training Computing Educators to Become Computing Education Researchers

TL;DR

This paper describes a six-year professional development program that trains computing educators in empirical research methods to enhance the quality and impact of their educational innovations.

Contribution

It introduces a structured, year-long mentoring model for training computing educators in empirical research, promoting the transition from anecdotal to scholarly results.

Findings

Participants produced publishable research results.

Survey data indicates increased research confidence.

The program served as a successful model for similar initiatives.

Abstract

The computing education community endeavors to consistently move forward, improving the educational experience of our students. As new innovations in computing education practice are learned and shared, however, these papers may not exhibit the desired qualities that move simple experience reports to true Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). We report on our six years of experience in running professional development for computing educators in empirical research methods for social and behavioral studies in the classroom. Our goal is to have a direct impact on instructors who are in the beginning stages of transitioning their educational innovations from anecdotal to empirical results that can be replicated by instructors at other institutions. To achieve this, we created a year-long mentoring experience, beginning with a multi-day workshop on empirical research methods during the summer, followed by regular mentoring sessions with participants, and culminating in a follow-up session at the following year's SIGCSE Technical Symposium. From survey results and as evidenced by eventual research results and publications from participants, we believe that our method of structuring empirical research professional development was successful and could be a model for similar programs in other areas.