Toward a debugging pedagogy: helping students learn to get unstuck with physical computing systems
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-03-2022-0051 |
| Published date | 06 January 2023 |
| Date | 06 January 2023 |
| Pages | 1-24 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library & information services |
| Author | Colin Hennessy Elliott,Alexandra Gendreau Chakarov,Jeffrey B. Bush,Jessie Nixon,Mimi Recker |
Toward a debugging pedagogy:
helping students learn to get
unstuck with physical
computing systems
Colin Hennessy Elliott
Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder,
Colorado, USA and Department of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum,
Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Alexandra Gendreau Chakarov
Department of Computer Science, San Jose State University, San Jose,
California, USA
Jeffrey B. Bush
Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder,
Colorado, USA, and
Jessie Nixon and Mimi Recker
Department of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences,
Utah State University, Logan, Utah, USA
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine how a middle school science teacher, new to
programming, supports students in learning to debug physical computing systems consisting of
programmablesensors and data displays.
Design/methodology/approach –This case study draws on data collected duringan inquiry-oriented
instructional unit in which students learn to collect, display and interpret data from their surrounding
environment by wiring and programming a physical computing system. Using interaction analysis, the
authors analyzed video recordingsof one teacher’s (Gabrielle) pedagogical moves as she supportedstudents
in debuggingtheir systems as they drew upon a variety ofembodied, material and social resources.
Findings –This study presents Gabrielle’s debugging interactional grammar, highlighting the
pedagogical possibilities for supporting students in systematic ways, provi ding affective support (e.g.
showing them care and encouragement) and positioning herself as a learner with the st udents.
Gabrielle’s practice, and therefore her pedagogy, has the potential to support students in becoming
better debuggers on their own in the future.
Originality/value –While much of the prior work on learning to debug focuseson learner actions and
possible errors, this case focuses on an educator’s debugging pedagogy centered on the educator
The authors deeply thank Gabrielle, and her students, for giving the team the gift of thinking with
their stories. The authors are also in debt to their ongoing partners at Gabrielle’s district for
continuing the Research Practice Partnership with SchoolWide Labs that made this possible.
Furthermore, the authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback. This research
was supported by the National Science Foundation (Award No. 1742053, No. 2019805 and
No. 1742046) and the James S. McDonnell Foundation.
Physical
computing
systems
1
Received29 March 2022
Revised19 August 2022
21October 2022
Accepted22 October 2022
Informationand Learning
Sciences
Vol.124 No. 1/2, 2023
pp. 1-24
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2398-5348
DOI 10.1108/ILS-03-2022-0051
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2398-5348.htm
debugging with the learners. This case study illustrates the need for educators to exhibit def t
facilitation, vulnerability and orchestration skills to support student development of t heir own process
for and agency in debugging.
Keywords Interaction analysis, Computational thinking, Science education, Debugging pedagogies,
Physical computing, Situated inquiry
Paper type Research paper
Physical computing in middle school science
There is considerable and growing demand to offer computing education to youth of all
ages. One promising approach, called physical computing, enables youth to pursue
personally relevant design tasks using a combination of hardware and software tools (e.g.
using an Arduino or micro:bit with block programming or text coding). With the growing
use of physical computing in classrooms, libraries and other STEM learning spaces,
educators need to learn to help students, especially as they debug hardware and software
issues that inevitably arise (DesPortes and DiSalvo, 2019). Many educators serving youth,
including middle schoolteachers, often have little experience with computing,programming
or physical computing systems (Warner et al.,2019), which leads to challenges supporting
when youth get stuck working on their systems. Teachers at the K-8 level especially find
obstacles in supportingstudents in becoming “unstuck”(Haduong and Brennan, 2019).
In this paper, we describe a teacher’s practice using a sensor-based physical
computing system, called the Data Sensor Hub (DaSH), developed for middle school
science and STEM inquiry instructional units. Using the BBC micro:bit –an
increasingly common physical computing technology used in K-8 schools which
debuted in 2016 (Sentance et al., 2017)–and associated hardware, the DaSH enables
students to programmatically analyze and display data collected from a variety of
environmental sensors.
A collection of researchers and educatorshave codesigned instructional units (Gendreau
Chakarov et al.,2021),including one to introduce middle school students to the DaSH (Biddy
et al., 2021) as a tool to support inquiry in their science and STEM classes. During this
introductory unit, students learn about the capabilities of the DaSH by creating their own
physical data displays. During these activities, students often encounter various problems
during this processand ask their teacher for help in getting “unstuck.”
To illustrate how educators support students in instances of debugging, we present a
case study of one teacher, Gabrielle [1], who was new to physical computing and
programming as she implementedthe introductory unit with two different science classes of
25 students aged 11–13 years. From a sociocultural perspective attending to the resources
and developing relations (Cole, 1996;Nasir and Hand, 2006;Vygotsky, 1978), we used
interaction analysis(Jordan and Henderson, 1995) to analyze her work with students as they
debugged their systems.Analysis highlights the pedagogical possibilitiesfor:
systematically, and multimodally, supporting students to notice bugs and possible
fixes;
providing affective support by showing care and encouragement; and
positioning oneself as a learner of programming.
In this way, we illustrate how Gabrielle’s approach has the potential to support studentsin
becoming better debuggerson their own rather than simply helping studentsfix the issue at
hand.
ILS
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