Creating a Disciplinary Commons in Computer Science Josh Tenenberg University of Washington, Tacoma

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Creating a Disciplinary Commons in Computer
ScienceJosh TenenbergUniversity of Washington,
Tacomajtenenbg_at_u.washington.edufaculty.washingto
n.edu/jtenenbg
SIGCSE 2006 Special Projects Showcase March 3,
2006
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Teaching as a private activity

• Privatized teaching spaces
• Aside from his syllabi and fading memories, he
  had no real record of what happened in those
  award winning courses
• Cross-institutional border skirmishes

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Deprivatize teaching Faculty meet on common
ground, and the practices and artifacts produced
become common property, available for use and
adaptation by others.
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From private to public creating a scholarly
community

• 12 CS teachers meeting face-to-face, monthly
  throughout academic year
• Crossing institutional borders CS faculty from
  different institutions engaged in common
  practices and common goals but with different
  contexts
• Talking about teaching
• Parallel construction and mutual critique of
  Course Portfolios (idea from Sally Fincher)

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An Examined Life of the Teaching Self

• The course portfolio, focuses on the unfolding
  of a single course, from conception to results
  (Hutchings, 1998). It provides a coherent
  narrative connecting course goals to
  instructional elements to student learning.
• Constructing a course portfolio is both
  archeological dig through self- and
  student-generated artifacts and reflective
  interrogation of taken-for-granted beliefs about
  thinking and learning.
• Watch ... any teacher ... and you'll be struck
  by how much of what they do is steered by notions
  of what the children's minds are like and how to
  help them learn, even though they may not be
  able to verbalize their pedagogical principles.
  (Bruner, 1996)

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Sessions Portfolio OverviewWashington
Instantiation

• Sept Course Objectives
• Oct Institutional and Curricular Context
• Nov Course Content
• Dec Teaching Methods
• Jan Rationale (Situated Teaching Philosophy)
• Feb Evidence of Student Learning
• Mar Grading
• Apr Self- and Peer-Observation
• May Lessons Learned External Pflio Review
• June Complete Portfolio

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Two Parallel Instantiations

• Washington State
• Leader Josh Tenenberg
• http//depts.washington.edu/comgrnd/
• United Kingdom
• Leader Sally Fincher
• http//www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/saf/dc/

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SIGCSE Special Project Funding

• Program Evaluation
• Collaboration between project leaders of both
  instantiations and external expert in SoTL
• (Jennifer Meta Robinson, Indiana University)
• Generalizing the Model
• To other contexts and disciplines
• Comparative data with parallel instantiations
• Developing a broader Commons in CSEd

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Acknowledgements

• Sally Fincher has been a collaborator throughout
  this project
• Funding has been provided by the Washington State
  Board of Community and Technical Colleges, the
  University of Washington Tacomas Institute of
  Technology, and the UWT Founders Endowment.