Key objectives of the project are:
The project has three major constituents:
The Scaffolding project aims to foster a community of discourse, in which ideas can be generated, tested, examined and extended. The project has been designed to address directly and effectively the needs and problems faced by the participants.
The biggest cost in any community endeavour is the cost of establishing relationships. Our workshops put participants into a "hothouse"-a place where ideas are nurtured and sustained through intensive interaction. Then, the experiment kit, managed mailing list, and meetings at SIGCSE '04 and '05 will carry this energy and discourse into everyday working practice.
The whole program of activity over time is designed to engender skills and confidence that will allow participants to initiate subsequent research and engage in the wider research community.
Each participant will be asked to make a two-year commitment encompassing attendance at two week-long workshops, and conducting a data collection exercise in the interim. In addition, their interim activity will be scaffolded with on-line discussions and additional meetings at SIGCSE Symposia in 2004 and 2005. The first workshop will be held June 13 - 18, 2003 in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The second workshop will be held June 5 - 10, 2003, also in the Pacific Northwest.
Year 1 | Application Process | Participants are selected on the basis of submitted position papers |
Preliminary Reading | Participants will be provided with a 'reader' of relevant selected material in advance of the workshop | |
Workshop 1 (Tacoma and Port Townsend, June 13-18,2003) |
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Interim | Electronic Discussion Network | A combination of spontaneous and guided discussion |
Intervening (& co-joined with Bootstrapping) meeting | Discussion meeting held at SIGCSE 04 (Norfolk, VA) | |
Each participant executes the experiment kit | Individual data-gathering | |
'Where next'? | Each participant will prepare a sketch for a new research study (of their own) in advance of the second workshop. | |
Preliminary reading | Critical reading of other participants' research sketches | |
Year 2 | Workshop 2 (Pacific Northwest, June 5 - 10, 2004) |
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Submission for publication |
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Fledging Meeting | Together with Bootstrapping participants at SIGCSE 05. |
Day 1: Putting research methods in context.
The experiment kit will be introduced in workshop one. Data gathering will be carried out during the interim year in the participants’ classrooms. Participants will be encouraged to maintain contact over the intervening period for problem-solving and support, forming an electronic research network. Preliminary analysis (on the individual data sets) will be undertaken in advance of the second workshop, where the data will be presented, amalgamated, and analysed in aggregate. Participants will contribute to the writing up, and the resultant paper will be submitted to an appropriate journal.
The kit to be introduced in this program will address understanding of design and investigate programming design processes in first- and second-year undergraduate students. Although the topic is heavily researched, results are still equivocal, and so a real contribution can be made.
Components of the experiment kit will include:
Each participant will arrive at the workshop having completed their data collection and preliminary analysis, and having read study sketches written by other participants and prepared to discuss a selection that has been assigned to them.
Day 1: Presentation and amalgamation of data
Day 2: Analysis of data in aggregate
Day 3: What next?
Day 4: Reflection