TITLE: Is Computing Too Hard, Too Foreign, or Too Disconnected? AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford DATE: November 05, 2011 10:09 AM DESC: ----- BODY: A lot of people are discussing a piece published in the New York Times piece yesterday, Why Science Majors Change Their Minds (It's Just So Darn Hard). It considers many factors that may be contributing to the phenomenon, such as low grades and insufficient work habits. Grades are typically much lower in STEM departments, and students aren't used to getting that kind of marks. Ben Deaton argues that this sort of rigor is essential, quoting his undergrad steel design prof: "If you earn an A in this course, I am giving you a license to kill." Still, many students think that a low grade -- even a B! -- is a sign that they are not suited for the major, or for the specialty area. (I've had students drop their specialty in AI after getting a B in the foundations course.) Most of the students who drop under such circumstances are more than capable of succeeding. Unfortunately, they have not usually developed the disciplined work habits they need to succeed in such challenging majors. It's a lot easier to switch to a different major where their current skills suffice. I think there are two more important factors at play. On the first, the Times article paraphrases Peter Kilpatrick, Notre Dame's Dean of Engineering:

... it's inevitable that students will be lost. Some new students do not have a good feel for how deeply technical engineering is.

In computer science, our challenge is even bigger: most HS students don't have any clue at all what computer science is. My university is nearing the end of its fall visit days for prospective students, who are in the process of choosing a college and a major. The most common question I am asked is, "What is computer science?", or its cousin, "What do computer scientists do?". This question comes from even the brightest students, ones already considering math or physics. Even more students walk by the CS table with their parents with blank looks on their faces. I'm sure some are thinking, "Why consider a major I have no clue about?" This issue also plagues students who decide to major in CS and then change their minds, which is the topic of the Times article. Students begin the major not really knowing what CS is, they find out that they don't like it as much as they thought they might, and they change. Given what they know coming into the university, it really is inevitable that a lot of students will start and leave CS before finishing. On the second factor I think most important, here is the money paragraph from the Times piece:

But as Mr. Moniz (a student exceedingly well prepared to study engineering) sat in his mechanics class in 2009, he realized he had already had enough. "I was trying to memorize equations, and engineering's all about the application, which they really didn't teach too well," he says. "It was just like, 'Do these practice problems, then you're on your own.'" And as he looked ahead at the curriculum, he did not see much relief on the horizon.

I have written many times here about the importance of building instructions around problems, beginning with Problems Are The Thing. Students like to work on problems, especially problems that matter to someone in the world. Taken to the next level, as many engineering schools are trying to do, courses should -- whenever possible -- be built around projects. Projects ground theory and motivate students, who will put in a surprising effort on a project they care about or think matters in the world. Projects are also often the best way to help students understand why they are working so hard to memorize and practice tough material. In closing, I can take heart that schools like mine are doing a better job retaining majors:

But if you take two students who have the same high school grade-point average and SAT scores, and you put one in a highly selective school like Berkeley and the other in a school with lower average scores like Cal State, that Berkeley student is at least 13 percent less likely than the one at Cal State to finish a STEM degree.

Schools tend to teach less abstractly than our research-focused sister schools. We tend to provide more opportunities early in the curriculum to work on projects and to do real research with professors. I think the other public universities in my state do a good job, but if a student is considering an undergrad STEM major, they will be much better served at my university. There is one more reason for the better retention rate at the "less selective" schools: pressure. The students at the more selective schools are likely to be more competitive about grades and success than the students at the less selective schools. This creates an environment more conducive to learning for most students. In my department, we try not to "treat the freshman year as a 'sink or swim' experience and accept attrition as inevitable" for reasons of Darwinian competition. As the Times article says, this is both unfair to students and wasteful of resources. By changing our curricula and focusing more on student learning than on how we want to teach, universities can address the problem of motivation and relevance. But that will leave us with the problem of students not really knowing what CS or engineering are, or just how technical and rigorous they need to be. This is an education problem of another sort, one situated in the broader population and in our HS students. We need to find ways to both share the thrill and help more people see just what the STEM disciplines are and what they entail. -----