Alexandra Gendreau Chakarov

Objectives . Physical computing systems are increasingly being integrated into secondary school science and STEM instruction, yet little is known about how teachers, especially those with little background and experience in computing, help students during the inevitable debugging moments that arise. In this article, we describe a framework, comprising two dimensions, for characterizing how teachers support students as they debug a physical computing system called the Data Sensor Hub (DASH). The DASH enables students to program sensors to measure, analyze, and visualize data as they engage in science inquiry activities. Participants . Five secondary school teachers implemented an inquiry-oriented instructional unit designed to introduce students to working with the DASH as a tool for scientific inquiry. Study Method . Findings drew on video analysis of the teachers’ classroom implementations of the unit. A review of the data corpus led to the selection of 23 moments where the teachers supported an individual or small groups of students engaged in debugging. These moments were analyzed using a grounded perspective based on Interaction Analysis to characterize the teachers’ varied interactional approaches. Findings . Our analysis revealed how teachers’ moves during debugging moments fell along two dimensions. The first dimension characterizes teachers’ positioning during the debugging interactions, ranging from a positioning for teacher understanding to a positioning for student understanding of the bug. The second dimension characterizes the inquiry orientation of the teachers’ questions and guidance, ranging from focusing on the debugging process to focusing on the product—or fixing the bug. Further, teachers’ moves often fell along different points on these dimensions given nuances in the instructional context. Conclusions . The framework offers a first step toward characterizing teachers’ debugging pedagogy as they support students during debugging moments. It also calls attention to how teachers do not necessarily need to be programming experts to effectively help students learn independent and generalizable debugging strategies. Further, it illustrates the variety of expertise that teachers can bring to debugging moments to support students learning to debug. Finally, the framework provides implications for the design of professional learning and supports for teachers as they increasingly are asked to support students in computing—and debugging—activities across a range of disciplines.

Learning Assistant Reflection, Guidance, and Exploration (LA-RGE) is a new program at San Jose State University designed to provide support for university faculty working with learning assistants (LAs). Faculty in LARGE attend facilitated biweekly meetings throughout the semester which discuss various topics about pedagogy, LAs, and equity. In this presentation, we will discuss a research study on what kind of support is being provided by this program and how that can potentially lead to better partnerships between faculty and LAs. During one-on-one interviews, we asked faculty to discuss their personal experiences over the time they have worked with LAs, and if LARGE meetings have had any effect on their perspective and relationship with their LA. We then categorized the different effects