The Arc of Computer Science at Long-View
Too often, people may conceive of the pedagogy of computer science in primary and secondary school as mainly the process of teaching learners to code. At Long-View, we try to approach the academic discipline of Computer Science, which began well before the invention of the personal computer, in an authentic way. As learners progress in computer science from first encounters to diverse applications of the discipline in later years, a throughline remains: we focus on thinking and learning, not syntax or language-specific features. To engage in computer science at Long-View is to learn the process of identifying the next best step in a computational problem, rather than memorizing a narrow set of solutions.
The arc of computer science at Long-View begins with ‘unplugged’ experiences (no computers necessary) that connect to big ideas. As Ms. Manor, who has led computer science here for the last several years, said, “We’ve found more success in the classroom when we try to do as much as possible without relying on computers.” While this principle still holds true as learners acquire more experience, it’s especially important for the early years. In these phases, we emphasize building a strong foundation in computational thinking, with lots of paper-based and physical exploration of concepts, like sorting jars, creating decision trees and developing algorithms for drawing shapes. For learners, these experiences instill a sense that computers are not the answer, or the only possibility, for addressing a computational problem or task.
As learners gain experience, we move toward in-depth explorations of well-known CS topics (which are often the same ones we’d first introduced in the earlier years), such as insertion sort, binary search, K nearest neighbors, and information theory. We might still do something like sorting jars, but then go beyond the physical experience into thinking about the various ways one could implement a similar idea on a computer. With that move toward transfer, the learners begin to transition into reading, interpreting, analyzing, and eventually writing their own code for the various algorithms. In the computer science block, we always try to foreground learning through discovery, with learners arriving at functional algorithms with as little conducting as possible. Engaging in the process provides an understanding that’s more stable than what one might gain from trying to memorize something from a lecture without the context of personal experience. For learners in the beginning and middle of the arc, most of the work is guided by the instructor, who finds and shares resources. For example, the entire class might read a blog post about the accuracy of Coronavirus tests to better understand how to assess machine learning models. As the learners gain more experience, they might be given multiple articles to choose from before constructing understanding together as a band.
In the culminating years at Long-View, learners are ready to begin applying their critical thinking skills with more independence, and their work in the CS block is structured around long term projects of their choosing. In designing their projects and goals, the learners are not limited to what the instructor already knows; in fact, the scope of these projects are often so creative that the instructor must learn new content alongside the learners in order to support their vision. As they pursue these long-term projects, learners discover that they need to start procuring their own resources, and they begin to identify how to determine the quality and relevance of a resource without aid from an instructor. Structured weekly check-ins allow young programmers to plan, learn time management, and get feedback, all while they have agency and grow independence in managing these complex projects.
In the fall, this cohort pursues independent projects, as we detailed in a past post. This gives each learner the opportunity to work on a topic that they want to delve deeper into, or a technical skill they want to hone, often in anticipation of the spring semester project – a collaborative one, still of the learners’ design. This second project gives the learners an opportunity to approach more ambitious projects that might be beyond the ability of a single learner. Additionally, this long term collaboration forces the learners to grapple with some very challenging non-computational issues, such as how to track the progress of a large project and manage the communication within partnerships over the course of 5-6 months.
Rather than a static set of skills in this discipline, Long-View’s graduates bring the ability to adapt and create in the domain of computational thinking to address the as-yet-unimagined challenges they’ll take on, in and out of school, in the years to come.
