CSP Feedback, "Belonging", and why I hear "too easy" too much.

I consider myself a fairly reflective teacher.  But in my school there are a lot of "loud" student voices.  There are some students who have been raised to believe that their voice is important and others' who don't see their voice as important. 

While I can observe the class and gather observational data from all students, I get additional data (welcomed or not) from those students with stronger voices.  That makes me really uncomfortable.  On one hand, I value feedback, on the other hand I don't want to modify instruction or curriculum to accommodate purely my privileged students.  I need to know where everyone is.  Google surveys help me get there.  I know that some students still feel uncomfortable with voicing their opinions in a survey format, but at least I hear something from everyone.  

I was really intrigued by this tweet about belonging.

Why are CS students so hard to nudge? A theory for why it’s so hard to promote a growth mindset in CS1 https://t.co/9wXtvTC5A0

— Mark Guzdial (@guzdial) May 7, 2018

In the blog the author says, "We’re going to have to remove the barriers to belonging, self-efficacy, and the sense that students can succeed at CS."

This idea behind "belonging" is something that I have put along "community building".  I did a pretty good job of it in my math classes, and in my smaller CSP classes last year.  This year though, I KNOW I didn't do a good job of it.  

My evidence for this was:

1. Students sat in the same spots all year (their choice each day, but we are creatures of habit...)
2. Students didn't know others' names in the class
3. Some students refused to ask from help from others
4. Some students got super behind

I think in CSP, a huge part of this was a HUGE class first semester with 41 students.  I am NOT letting that happen again.  We should be capped at 36.  I am already at 38(ish) I think next year.  Since administration won't break that into two sections, that means we will be cutting students from the class.  I didn't want to do that last year, and I think all students (and myself) suffered because of that.  I am not letting 39 people down because we won't make another section.  I will let 2 people down who will get cut... but that's a rant for another day...

SO... belongingness... here's how I measured it.  I had students describe their feelings on each of these statements with no "neutral" option.  

When I look at this, I see a lot of things to be proud of.  

• I am happy to see that students felt like they had choices.  This was something I am a very strong proponent of - especially in CS.  Because I am a PLC of one, I am able to insert a TON of choice into the classroom experience.  It is awesome for me - and students seem to see that too. 
• I am actually happy to see so many people feel supported, challenged and successful.  Especially successful.  The number of people who put "strongly agree" for "I feel successful" means that students see themselves of CS.  That's huge.  That's my goal.  Likewise, I occasionally hear that this class is too easy, so the fact that most students reported feeling challenged, also was re-assuring to me. 

I also see some things to dig deeper into.

• While most students felt supported, the number who did not feel supported is much higher than I would like.  I need to see who those students were and look for correlations.  I also think I need to ask this question earlier in the year (perhaps after our first programming unit) to see if there are people who feel unsupported earlier in the year.
• The number of students who felt like they didn't "belong" also is alarming.  Again, I will be checking those students to see how that matches to my perception.
• I also wonder how this breaks down by gender. Since boys out-number girls 3-1, I want to see if looking at female students shifts these numbers at all. 

I also have heard from students this class is too easy.  That infuriates me.  Mainly because I feel like we have substituted "rigor" for "quality learning".  They are not the same.  I literally have students who would rather blow through this material in a semester.  We have other teachers who do that in other content areas which is their choice... but then I think students come to expect that from all AP classes.  Just the other day I was trying to talk some struggling math students into taking AP CSP and they were super interested in it except for the "AP" part.  It was a turn off.  If I called the exact same course CSP, they would have done it.  Any way, here's the results of the survey. 

Kinda surprising!!!  Given all the feedback I hear about this class being too easy, that's not everyone's experience.  It is pretty obvious to me that the vocal students are not in the majority here.  Yes, 31% say it is too easy, but only 2 students seemed actually mad about how easy the course is. 

I actually anticipated more "too easys" given that was what I heard the most of out loud. 

I asked students who felt like it was "just right", "too easy", or "way too easy" two follow up questions.

1. I sometimes hear that "this class is too easy". Do you agree or disagree? Why do you think people say that?
2. Is having a class be "too easy" a bad thing?

Here are some sample responses to the first question:

• "I think it's easy because there's no homework. We usually judge classes on how much homework they give out because most of us can figure the in class stuff out but having a lot of homework ads stress and makes the class "hard".
• It depends on what you put into the class honestly. Sure, some things might be on the easier end, but you can definitely make it harder for yourself depending on what you want to do (especially with projects). For example, our hangman game definitely could have been made in an easier way, but we challenged ourselves and made it harder, which also allowed us to make a more complex game.
• I disagree because there will always be time to challenge yourself like on projects and some code.org levels. The second semester material is much harder, however, it is more interesting. 
• The only reason you hear that is because of the students who take this class tend to be accustomed to high level classes.

Here were some sample responses to "Is having a class be "too easy" a bad thing?"

• I don't think that it is, I think it allows students to focus and do their best work but I think it makes some student lazy. I don't think that the class needs to move faster because time constraints were honestly the most challenging thing. I think students should just be challenged to implement code in a more complex way. 
• Sometimes i felt that this was a very bad thing as we would just be sitting in class not knowing really what to do after we finished projects so we would just work on homework for other classes
• Not really it's not good to have all these "hard" classes having a class that doesn't give that much homework but is still interesting is good.
• Definitely not! This class honestly allows you to take your own route (especially with creativity). Like I mentioned before, it depends on what YOU want to get out of the class. You get what you put into the class. Plus, it's sometimes nice to have a bit of a breather if we're having a few days designated for work time for projects. 

 Reading through all these, I noticed most people who reported it was "easier" were ok with having an "easier" class.  I also noticed a larger push back on the idea of it being "too easy" from the kids who felt like it was "just right".  Students who said it was "just right" spoke passionately about it not being too easy and how "too easy" isn't always a negative.  In many ways, this re-affirmed my course of action with AP CSP.  I am on the right track.  Projects are a great way to differentiate.  I need to make sure STUDENTS come up with a MVP as well as 3-4 extensions.  Adjustments will be made, but it is, at it's core, a solid course.

Finally, as if the world wasn't already telling me to be cool with the course, 3 of my former students have come back and said "wow, AP CSP made my first college CS course so. much. easier."   That feels good.  Students are having better experiences (and, I would argue, feeling that they belong) in college CS classes because of AP CSP - that's a win.