CSSE Seminar Series (CSSESS)

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My research focusses on increasing the number of women and underrepresented minorities in computing. According to a recently published survey, our study of pair programming in introductory programming courses at the university level is "one of the most extensive studies of pair programming" (Hanks et al., 2011, p. 136) and showed that students who learned to program in a paired condition were as able to apply that learning independently as students who learned in the solo condition and that women in the paired condition were more likely to take the final exam than women in the solo condition and passed at similar rates.

Most recently, one of my projects is a 3-year research project that involves 12 year olds using Alice to create computer games. We are specifically trying to define and measure computational thinking. Some of our key contributions are assessment strategies to measure it and results that describe the individual and social factors that explain variation in increases in computational thinking. Analyses of data from 325 students suggest that game programming engages them in multiple aspects of CT. Students working with a partner increased their programming knowledge and demonstrated more computational thinking, but they also experienced declines in their computer confidence. I will discuss some of our successes and challenges.

Linda Werner (Ph.D., University of California, San Diego 1988) is an adjunct professor in the department of computer science at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She was the PI on a US National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project on the retention of female students in computer science. She has been invited to share her research on pair programming and computer fluency at the university and middle school (age 12-14) levels at international conferences, as well as NSF and ACM JETT/TECS sponsored workshops. Dr. Werner has extensive experiences as an educator and researcher at the university, community college, and junior high levels. She is actively involved in working to increase the numbers of female computer science students. In addition, she has many years of experience as a software engineer.

Brian Hanks, Sue Fitzgerald, Renee McCauley, Laurie Murphy & Carol Zander (2011): Pair programming in education: a literature review, Computer Science Education, 21:2, 135-173.

Quick links: Past seminars,  future seminars,  CSSESS Home