Conference Attendance SIGCSE 2016 - Day 2

After lunch when we are all in food comas, let's attend the best paper talk!
A Multi-institutional Study of Peer Instruction in Introductory Computing -
This study followed 7 instructors across different institutions as they used peer instruction.  This showed that both the instruction is generally recognized as valuable, while also touching on routes in which it can go awry.  Tell students why this technique is being used and what it's effect.  Hard questions are good questions to ask, as students will discuss and learn from the question.  This requires that questions are graded for participation and not *correctness*.  Possible questions and material for peer instruction is available.

Development of a Concept Inventory for Computer Science Introductory Programming -
A concept inventory is a set of questions that carefully tease out student misunderstandings and misconceptions.  Take the exams and identify both the learning objective and the misconception that results in incorrect answers.

int addFiveToNumber(int n)
{
  int c = 0;
  // Insert line here
  return c;
}

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
  int x = 0;
  x = addFiveToNumber(x);
  printf("%d\n", x);
  return 0;
}

a) scanf("%d", &n);
b) n = n + 5;
c) c = n + 5;
d) x = x + 5;

Each incorrect answer illustrates a different misconception.  For example, input must come from the keyboard.  Or variables are passed by reference.
Overall, this study illustrated how the concept inventory was developed, but not the impact of having it, or what it showed in the students and their learning.

Uncommon Teaching Languages - (specifically in intro courses)
An interesting effect of using an uncommon language in an introductory course is that the novices and experts have similar skills.  Languages should be chosen to minimize churn, otherwise students feel that they haven't mastered any languages.  And related to this point, languages also exist in an institutional ecosystem.  Furthermore, we want to minimize the keywords / concepts required for a simple program.  A novice will adopt these keywords, but they also are "magic" and arcane.  And then how long are the programs, as we want novices to only have to write short code to start.

I also attended the SIGCSE business meeting and then the NCWIT reception.  I have gone to NCWIT every year at SIGCSE, as I want to know what I should do (or not do) to not bias anyone's experience in Computer Science.