contributed articles

Doi: 10.1145/1735223.1735244

The curriculum should inspire students
to view CS as both accomplishment and
intellectual discipline.
BY cLaYton Le Wis, micheLe h. JacKson,
anD WiLLiam m. Waite
student and
faculty
attitudes and
Beliefs about
computer
science

Wha T s TUdeNTs ThiNK about a discipline—its structure, usefulness, how it is learned—plays an important role in shaping how they approach it. Just as faculty members aim to have their students learn the facts and skills of a discipline, they may also want to shape student beliefs and attitudes. here, we report the attitudes of undergraduate computer science students early and late in the curriculum, comparing them with faculty attitudes in the same department. The results reflect the places where students think

what faculty want them to think, where they do not think that way, and whether there is evidence that final-year students agree more or less with faculty than students in introductory courses. Together with earlier research, the results provide insight into sometimes surprising attitudes, and can help guide curricular improvement.

In physics education, research1, 13 into key attitudes and beliefs about physics as a discipline and how they change suggests that courses sometimes shift student attitudes away from the attitudes endorsed by faculty. In particular, students may move toward the view that physics is mainly about memorizing and evaluating formulae, rather than about a conceptual understanding of the natural world.

CS faculty are also likewise concerned with student attitudes: “CS is just programming;” 17 “As long as a program works it doesn’t matter how it is written;” and “Theoretical CS is not relevant to the real world.” Do students hold such views? As they move through the curriculum, do their beliefs come to resemble those of faculty teaching them?

Our study collected and analyzed data on these points. Specifically, we collected responses to 32 questions about attitudes and beliefs from beginning and advanced CS undergraduates and from faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The results revealed some areas in which student responses clearly agree with faculty and others where they disagree. Comparing the responses of beginning

 

key;insights

the attitudes of beginning cs students are more varied than final-year students, suggesting the curriculum plays an important role in shaping them.

final-year cs students generally show little appreciation for skills involving creativity and reasoning, emphasizing instead cs as outcomes.

understanding how student attitudes are formed and strengthened helps faculty develop more effective cs curricula.