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Exploring Experienced Professionals’ Reflections on Computing Education

Authors:

Marisa Exter,

Nichole TurnageAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), Volume 12, Issue 3

Article No.: 12, Pages 1 - 23

https://doi.org/10.1145/2275597.2275601

Published: 01 July 2012 Publication History

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Abstract

This exploratory qualitative study examines computing professional’s memories of their own formal and non-formal educational experiences, their reflections on how these have prepared them for their professional roles, and their recommendations for an “ideal” undergraduate degree program. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews of experienced computing professionals. Ongoing on-the-job learning is a natural part of professionals’ work lives. Participants indicate that important elements in an undergraduate degree program include foundational computing topics, development of critical thinking and communications skills, and a strong emphasis on experiences similar to those encountered in a professional position, such as complex, realistic group projects. Specific programming languages and technologies should be used only as practice in solving problems and learning on one’s own.

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Kang JGirouard A(2022)Impact of UX Internships on Human-computer Interaction Graduate Students: A Qualitative Analysis of Internship ReportsACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/351713222:4(1-25)Online publication date: 15-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3517132
Stepanova AWeaver ALahey JAlexander GHammond T(2022)Hiring CS Graduates: What We Learned from EmployersACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/347462322:1(1-20)Online publication date: 31-Mar-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3474623
Sánchez ADomínguez CBlanco JJaime A(2019)Incorporating Computing Professionals’ Know-howACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/330915719:3(1-18)Online publication date: 21-May-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3309157
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Index Terms

Exploring Experienced Professionals’ Reflections on Computing Education
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education
      2. Model curricula
    2. Management of computing and information systems
      1. Project and people management
        Computer and information systems training

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Reviews

Reviewer: Keith Harrow

What are the most useful things learned in the formal education of a computing professional, and what in the nonformal__?__ What should an ideal undergraduate curriculum look like, to best prepare students for their future careers__?__ These are important questions that all of us in the field struggle with, whether we are instructors or learners. This paper is an attempt "to explore how formal and nonformal education prepares computing professionals for their future roles." As part of their study, the two researchers conducted a series of 23 detailed interviews with experienced computer professionals. For a variety of reasons, only 14 interviews were actually used. (Unfortunately, the one female in the initial group could not be included in the final analysis. The authors acknowledge this deficiency, but they do not feel it had a major impact on their results.) First, it is crucial to realize that just about all professions require some amount of on-the-job or continuing education training, but this need is especially crucial in the computing field, where the body of knowledge itself changes so quickly and so dramatically over time. Because of this, the professionals interviewed for this study emphasized particular courses they had found useful, but also talked about nonformal education. The responses on formal coursework had few surprises, focusing on fundamental areas such as data structures and algorithms, as well as real-world projects, plus skills such as technical writing and communications. Despite Dijkstra's famous dictum about Basic, these professionals thought the particular programming language used was irrelevant. They felt the need for a good background in a first language, but it was not so crucial what that language happened to be. With this good background, it was relatively easy for them to pick up additional languages on their own. As for the nonformal education, the professionals stressed the power of the Internet, including specific things like Wikipedia, developer forums, code samples, and search engines. Those of us in academia tend to downplay these resources, but it is clear that the professionals in this study valued them quite highly. The authors conclude that "findings from this paper suggest that formal educational programs [should] take into account the important role that nonformal educational experiences play." Perhaps if we help students continue to learn in the future, we can cut down on some of the many "essential" topics that we try to cram into a computer science curriculum. Online Computing Reviews Service

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cover image ACM Transactions on Computing Education

ACM Transactions on Computing Education Volume 12, Issue 3

July 2012

107 pages

EISSN:1946-6226

DOI:10.1145/2275597

Issue’s Table of Contents

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

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Publication History

Published: 01 July 2012

Accepted: 01 April 2012

Revised: 01 April 2012

Received: 01 September 2011

Published in TOCE Volume 12, Issue 3

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Exter MAshby I(2018)Preparing today’s educational software developers: voices from the fieldJournal of Computing in Higher Education10.1007/s12528-018-9198-9Online publication date: 19-Oct-2018
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de L. Lima Pda C. C. Franco Fraga Gdos Anjos Eda Silva D(2015)Systematic Mapping Studies in Modularity in IT CoursesComputational Science and Its Applications -- ICCSA 201510.1007/978-3-319-21413-9_10(132-146)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2015
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Exter MDougherty JNagel KDecker AEiselt K(2014)Comparing educational experiences and on-the-job needs of educational software designersProceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education10.1145/2538862.2538970(355-360)Online publication date: 5-Mar-2014
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Grand challenges for the UK: upskilling teachers to teach computer science within the secondary curriculum

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