Choreographing increased understanding and positive attitudes towards coding by integrating dance
Keywords:
STEAM education, coding, increasing representation, danceAbstract
Increasing the inclusion of underrepresented individuals in coding is an intractable problem, with a variety of initiatives trying to improve the situation. Many of these initiatives involve STEAM education, which combines the arts with traditional STEM disciplines. Evidence is emerging that this approach is making headway on this complex problem. We present one such initiative, iLumiDance Coding, which attempts to pique the interest and increase confidence of students in coding, by combining it with a fun and physical activity: dance. The connections between dance and coding, while not immediately obvious, are authentic, and we hypothesize that this approach will increase student comfort level with coding. We used student surveys of attitudes toward coding and a variety of statistical approaches to analyze our initiative. Each analysis showed a positive effect on student comfort level with coding. These results are useful for both educators and researchers since they contribute to a deeper understanding of how to increase interest in coding, which we hope will lead to an increase in representation.
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
References
Agresti, A. and Coull, B.A. (1998). Approximate is better than ‘exact’ for interval estimation of binomial proportions. The American Statistician, 52, p. 119126.
Agresti, A. and Caffo, B. (2000). Simple and effective confidence intervals for proportions and differences of proportions result from adding two successes and two failures, The American Statistician. 54, 280288.
Brickman, P. and Lovelace, M. (2013). Best practices for measuring students’ attitudes toward learning science. CBE life sciences education. 4. 606617.
Buchholz, B., Shively, K., Peppler, K., and Wohlwend, K. (2014). Hands On, Hands Off: Gendered Access in Crafting and Electronics Practices. Mind, Culture, and Activity. (21)4, 278-297. https://doi.org/10.1080/10749039.2014.939762
Buechley, L. and Mako Hill, B. (2010). LilyPad in the wild: how hardware's long tail is supporting new engineering and design communities. In Proceedings of the 8th ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '10). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 199-207. 10.1145/1858171.1858206
Bundy, A. (2007). Computational thinking is pervasive. Journal of Scientific and Practical Computing. 1(2), 67-69
Dewey, J. (1934). Art as experience. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Else-Quest, N., Mineo, C., and Higgins, A. (2013). Math and Science Attitudes and Achievement at the Intersection of Gender and Ethnicity. Psychology of Women Quarterly. (3)37, 293-309. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684313480694
Gross, K. and Gross, D. (2016). TRANSFORMATION: Constructivism, Design Thinking, and Elementary STEAM, Art Education, (6)69, 36-43. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2016.1224869
Kant, J., Burckhard, S. and Meyers, R. (2018). Engaging High School Girls in Native American Culturally Responsive STEAM Activities. Journal of STEM Education, 18(5). Retrieved September 13, 2019 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/182466/
Maltas, W. (2015). From STEM to STEAM: Integrating Arts Education into the STEM disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA.
Moore, R., Edwards, D., Freeman, J., Magerko, B., McKlin, T., and Xambo, A. (2016). EarSketch: An Authentic, STEAM-based Approach to Computing Education. 2016 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition.
Oregon Department of Education. 2019. At-A-Glance School and District Profiles. https://www.ode.state.or.us/data/reportcard/reports.aspx Accessed 28 September 2019.
National Center of Science and Engineering Statistics. https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf19304/digest/field-of-degree-women#computer-science. Accessed 28 September 2019
Peppler, K. (2013) STEAM-Powered Computing Education: Using E-Textiles to Integrate the Arts and STEM, Computer, 46(9), 38 - 43. DOI: 10.1109/MC.2013.257.
Treiblmaier, H. and Filzmoser, P. (2009). Benefits from using continuous rating scales in online survey research, tech. rep., Vienna University of Technology, Augasse 2-6, A-1090 Vienna, Austria, November2009. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6f90/c913e1e5a162371862a6c5e20f8e7de5e9c7.pdf
Webb, H. (2013). INJECTING COMPUTATIONAL THINKING INTO COMPUTING ACTIVITIES FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL GIRLS, A Dissertation in Information Sciences and Technology from The Pennsylvania State University. The Graduate School College of Information Sciences and Technology.
Weinberger, C.J. (2004). Just ask! Why surveyed women did not pursue IT courses or careers, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine 23, 28-35.
Wing J.M. (2008). Computational thinking and thinking about computing. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 366(1881), 3717-3725.
Yakman, G., (2008). STEAM Education: An Overview of Creating a Model of Integrative Education, Virgina Polytechnic and State University: Virgina. https://www.iteea.org/File.aspx?id=86752&v=75ab076a
Agresti, A. and Caffo, B. (2000). Simple and effective confidence intervals for proportions and differences of proportions result from adding two successes and two failures, The American Statistician. 54, 280288.
Brickman, P. and Lovelace, M. (2013). Best practices for measuring students’ attitudes toward learning science. CBE life sciences education. 4. 606617.
Buchholz, B., Shively, K., Peppler, K., and Wohlwend, K. (2014). Hands On, Hands Off: Gendered Access in Crafting and Electronics Practices. Mind, Culture, and Activity. (21)4, 278-297. https://doi.org/10.1080/10749039.2014.939762
Buechley, L. and Mako Hill, B. (2010). LilyPad in the wild: how hardware's long tail is supporting new engineering and design communities. In Proceedings of the 8th ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '10). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 199-207. 10.1145/1858171.1858206
Bundy, A. (2007). Computational thinking is pervasive. Journal of Scientific and Practical Computing. 1(2), 67-69
Dewey, J. (1934). Art as experience. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Else-Quest, N., Mineo, C., and Higgins, A. (2013). Math and Science Attitudes and Achievement at the Intersection of Gender and Ethnicity. Psychology of Women Quarterly. (3)37, 293-309. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684313480694
Gross, K. and Gross, D. (2016). TRANSFORMATION: Constructivism, Design Thinking, and Elementary STEAM, Art Education, (6)69, 36-43. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2016.1224869
Kant, J., Burckhard, S. and Meyers, R. (2018). Engaging High School Girls in Native American Culturally Responsive STEAM Activities. Journal of STEM Education, 18(5). Retrieved September 13, 2019 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/182466/
Maltas, W. (2015). From STEM to STEAM: Integrating Arts Education into the STEM disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA.
Moore, R., Edwards, D., Freeman, J., Magerko, B., McKlin, T., and Xambo, A. (2016). EarSketch: An Authentic, STEAM-based Approach to Computing Education. 2016 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition.
Oregon Department of Education. 2019. At-A-Glance School and District Profiles. https://www.ode.state.or.us/data/reportcard/reports.aspx Accessed 28 September 2019.
National Center of Science and Engineering Statistics. https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf19304/digest/field-of-degree-women#computer-science. Accessed 28 September 2019
Peppler, K. (2013) STEAM-Powered Computing Education: Using E-Textiles to Integrate the Arts and STEM, Computer, 46(9), 38 - 43. DOI: 10.1109/MC.2013.257.
Treiblmaier, H. and Filzmoser, P. (2009). Benefits from using continuous rating scales in online survey research, tech. rep., Vienna University of Technology, Augasse 2-6, A-1090 Vienna, Austria, November2009. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6f90/c913e1e5a162371862a6c5e20f8e7de5e9c7.pdf
Webb, H. (2013). INJECTING COMPUTATIONAL THINKING INTO COMPUTING ACTIVITIES FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL GIRLS, A Dissertation in Information Sciences and Technology from The Pennsylvania State University. The Graduate School College of Information Sciences and Technology.
Weinberger, C.J. (2004). Just ask! Why surveyed women did not pursue IT courses or careers, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine 23, 28-35.
Wing J.M. (2008). Computational thinking and thinking about computing. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 366(1881), 3717-3725.
Yakman, G., (2008). STEAM Education: An Overview of Creating a Model of Integrative Education, Virgina Polytechnic and State University: Virgina. https://www.iteea.org/File.aspx?id=86752&v=75ab076a
Published
2021-02-15
How to Cite
Flesch, B., Gabaldón, C., Nabity, M., & Thomas, D. (2021). Choreographing increased understanding and positive attitudes towards coding by integrating dance. International Journal of Computer Science Education in Schools, 4(3), 31–48. https://doi.org/10.21585/ijcses.v4i3.109
Issue
Section
Full Papers
Copyright & Licensing
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
