Exploring the relationship between student identities and

academic success in undergraduate computer

science education

Peter Chalk, Faculty of Computing

London Metropolitan University, April 2012

Presentation on data analysis stage of EdD

Aim of research

• To develop an understanding of the relationship between students' identities, experiences and success in undergraduate computer science education (CSE),

• by exploring students' perceptions and experiences, and

• by examining the disciplinary/ institutional cultures and practices, of CSE.

Aim of this talk

• Present new primary data mainly in the form of extracts from interview transcripts, and

• propose approaches to analysing it. • It is hoped that findings will contribute to

understandings of success, failure and dropout in CSE, with implications for policy and practice.

The theoretical framework

• Based on Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, capitals, field and practice,

• as applied to understanding relationships between student identities and the field of CSE,

• in a post-Bourdieuan framework suggested by the work of Lousie Archer and others.

Louise Archer (2010) on habitus

• “... the notion of family (science) habitus is being deployed as a tool to examine the extent to which families construct a collective relationship with science sense through their everyday attitudes and practices and the extent to which this is shaped by their possession of particular sorts of economic, social and cultural capital.” (BERA paper)

Research methodology• Qualititative based on open-question interviews:

– student life history narrative, motivation & expectations, ambitions & aspirations, and

– staff on CS identity, how subject constructed and what they look for in student interviews.

• And documents/ observations from universities:

– ‘Downtown’ inner-city post-92

– ‘City Centre’ inner-city post-92

– ‘Castletown’ midlands city post-92

– ‘Uptown’ inner-city pre-92 (and ‘Central’?)

Interviews completed

• Students (20 in total)

– 6 at pre-92 (1 female) and 14 at post-92 (3 female)

• Diverse mix but NOT intended to be ‘representative’ in any way – this research is not attempting to draw conclusions based on sampling in any form. It is looking at constructions of identity through authentic narratives.

• In addition:

– Staff (4) 1 pre-92, 3 post-92 (all 4 male) from unis where most students were interviewed.

Example questions from interview schedule (students)

• Why are you interested in computing?• What are your expectations of the course?• Do you enjoy playing games or solving puzzles?• When you were a child were there any influences

over your choice of study, interests or ambition?• What aspect of computers interests you?• Some students find computing difficult, why do

you think this is?

Initial coding framework (part of)• Ambition/ Aspiration• Confidence• Desire/ Imagination/ passion• Drop-out • Early years/ Enjoy• Expectation/ Motivation• Identity/ Image• Influence/ Family, friend, school,• Interest/ Curiosity• Maths/ Practical/ Technical/ Programming

Some initial themes arising from interviews

• Student & institutional (field) habitus – mismatch?• Reflected in ‘wrong choice of course’; evidence

from staff interviews• Student/ subject identity

– How do staff define it?

– What are typical features in student narratives?

• Is it possible to model a computer science identity??

Wrong choice of course – staff view

“...they apply for courses without a clear idea of where they are going.” (‘Dennis’, staff, City Centre Uni)

“... students have a limited understanding of what computer science is.” (‘James’, staff, Uptown Uni)

Important to Dennis who says he rejects any student who “doesn’t appear to have made any attempt to have found out about the content of the course”

James says he does not make decisions himself, but makes recommendations.

Wrong choice of course – student view

• “Half the time there were only two of us being relied upon – when we were talking these were just oblivious to what’s going on, they didn’t have the motivation and just chose the course because they had no other option maybe.” (Asif, Castletown)

• “That’s why I wonder about these people who are not sure about the course, why they even bother to sign up for it.” (Matt, Castletown)

• “I always thought that kids coming to uni at 18 are into computer games, they like gadgets and electrical things and want the coolest things so they think ‘I’ll do computing’. They find it’s not what they expected, it’s a way of thinking that’s completely alien to them, it’s very, very strict, logical way of thinking. They find it boring and they can’t cope with it and they drop out.” (Calvin, Downtown).

Signs of an emerging computer science identity? Staff view

• Dennis “...any sort of analytical ability so anyone who has been interested in any way in finding out how things work with a view to copying them or improving them or making use of them.”

• James “blend of formal thinking and mathematics and applying it to applications, and wanting to do something useful.”

Data on the theme of family (computer science?) habitus?

• ‘Paul’ (student at Uptown Uni) on his mother: “...there is Indian researcher in Newcastle (Mishal?) who works on computer system learning and I think he calls it the ‘granny effect’ – someone who has no idea about the process at all but just stands somewhere quietly and admires you can have a substantial benefit to you. So I guess that was the effect, she admired what I did, and obviously I was encouraged by that. Although she had no idea what I did. [laughs]” [my emphasis]

• Middle class, cultural capital family influence, not explicitly ‘computer science’ habitus

• Also “I actually tried to teach her at one point”.

‘Matt’, ‘Asif’ and ‘Rupert’ (Castletown Uni) on family (CS) habitus

• “[Matt’s grandfather] is quite into hardware stuff, he’s an electrician, and I got some stuff from him, and I was always interested in how stuff works. You can’t understand how it works without taking it apart” [my emphasis]

• Asif’s brother is 6 years older and “works for a computer company. He brings new hardware into the house, hard drives and motherboards and everything and I was just like to learn [sic], what’s going on with them.”

• Rupert: “I have a smaller sister, she’s 8 so she can’t help me, but I helped her so now when she is on the computer she uses the internet, mozilla, she goes to games or paint, she really likes it, I motivate her, she watched me how I work and when I left it she came to use the computer. [animated]”

Comments on family (CS) habitus

• Paul seems to fit the model proposed by James (staff from same uni, Uptown): ‘applying formal thinking’ and ‘wanting to do something useful’ – he “tried to teach” his mother.

• Castletown students more inclined to Dennis’s model of ‘finding out how things work’. This theme emerges consistently throughout the interviews with students.

The case of ‘Denise’ from ‘City Centre Uni’ (single parent, council estate)

• Denise (NVQ car mechanics, described her interviewer as ‘giving her a chance’!) exhibits both family and ‘how things work’ themes:– “My granddad was an inventor... Probably once a week but

he used to take down to the… he actually had three workshops in his garden... [And on games:] Meccano, yea, my granddad had loads of meccano at his house, the old metal kind. And my bike which I constantly took the chain off and games, strangely any game that involved a lot of money [laugh] like monopoly ”

– “I was finding it quite hard to learn stuff that you can’t touch. So I did car mechanics, obviously you can take the engine apart.”

Another useful approach? A model of science identity

• From Carlone & Johnson (2007) on women of colour in science education (cite Wenger on community of practice):– “She is competent; she demonstrates meaningful

knowledge and understanding of science content and is motivated to understand the world scientifically. She also has the requisite skills to perform for others her competence with scientific practices (e.g., uses of scientific tools, fluency with all forms of scientific talk and ways of acting, and interacting in various formal and informal scientific settings). Further, she recognizes herself, and gets recognized by others, as a ‘science person’.”

– Model helps to identify/ organise themes in the data?

Examples of Competence in my data

• “I expect to be learning everything I need to know about computers, the architecture, the inside and the outside, the programming and the hardware, everything and in the end I’d be walking out knowing more than the average student who’s done a similar course at the university, that’s what I’ll be learning.” (Asif, Castletown)

Examples of Performance in my data

• “When I was 14 two classmates and I developed an adventure game – we did all the coding in Direct X and whatever, in C++ for the Windows system, and we basically wrote an adventure game called Monkey Island, but set in our school, and all the teachers were participating and it was real fun.” (Paul, Uptown)

Examples of Recognition in my data

• “Q Do you help friends or family with their computers?– Rupert: All the time [laugh] all the time. I always

succeed and they are happy, all the time. In high school I had to do networking in my informatics class. And when a computer crashed and something went wrong I had to go and fix it.”

• “Q Do people ask you to help them?– Alon (Castletown): Yes, sure, when they get a virus,

when someone intrudes, how can they prevent that, when they want new windows installed, things like that.”

• Paul at 14: “we had a market that we could cater to, it was a commercial project and it worked. Later I did a lot of web applications for ... orchestras, music groups”

Conclusions no; questions!

• Are Bourdieu’s concepts of cultural capital, habitus etc useful?

• Can they be extended beyond his ideas about class?– eg institutional habitus (applying to field of

CSE)– eg ‘computer science’ habitus

• Other models of identity a better fit?

References

• Archer, L (2010) ‘Science is not for me?’: exploring children’s and families’ engagement with science through the lens of identity’, BERA 1st-4th September, University of Warwick.

• Carlone, H B & Johnson, A (2007) ‘Understanding the Science Experiences of Successful Women of Color: Science Identity as an Analytic Lens’, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, VOL. 44, NO. 8, PP. 1187–1218.