Low-cost intervention boosts undergraduate interest in computer science

Low-cost intervention boosts undergraduate interest in computer science

A recent study has found that an online intervention for less than 30 minutes has increased significantly in computer science for both male and female graduate students. 

However, when it comes to the effect of interference on classroom performance, the picture becomes more complex

"Our focus was on determining how interventions of 'development mentality' would affect students' interest and performance in computer science, so we have done an experiment which allows us to find out those questions," says Jenny Burnett First, on the author on the paper. 

An Associate Professor of Psychology at Work and North Carolina State University

"We know from previous work in other references that a development mentality - the belief that human traits are malleable - is self-regulation and significant consequences for goal achievement," Burnett says. 

In this example, the mentality of development is that people will develop their computer science capabilities. Keep another way, it is contrary to thinking that some people have computer science on talent and others are not."

For the study, researchers worked with 491 students to get introductory computer science courses in seven different universities.

 A group of 245 students had shown four online Growth Mindset modules during the class, focusing on each module, what is the growth mindset and it is being emphasized that if they apply themselves to computer science, So a control group of 246 students showed four online modules that focus on the student's health, such as exercising and not enough Get to sleep Each module has been quite short, with total running time for all four development mentality modules coming in approximately 27 minutes.

All 491 students were surveyed before the intervention and after watching all the four modules. The survey evaluated the interest of each student in computer science.

Researchers found that the students who received the mentality of development were more interested in computer science compared to those students, who had received control group intervention, even before their intervention, their interest level account -Real too What is more, the increase in interest was equal for both male and female students who had received mentality intervention.

However, interference alone did not show a direct impact on the student's performance in the computer science curriculum. Although it was not enough

"We did not get an immediate impression of interference on the performance," Burnett says. "But we found that the intervention of mentality gave students more space in the curriculum, which means that the curriculum was more important.

And, we found that the correlated value with the final grades of students in a class. Therefore, there is a positive Indirect impact of interference on performance. "

Paper, "A Growth Mind-Set Intervention Interest Improvement but Not Educational Performance in the Field of Computer Science", is published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. 

This paper was co-authored by Crystal Hoyt and Barry Lawson of Richmond University; University of North Carolina Greensborough University Mitchell Russell; Carol Duke of Stanford University; And Eli Finkel of Northwestern University

Under the grant number 1327561, the work was done with the support of the National Science Foundation.