COLLOQUIUM: Igor dos Santos Montagner, ""So... why am I learning this?": Designing Authentic Learning Experiences in Computing Education"

Abstract: Students often report low motivation associated with a lack of connection between subjects they are studying and the "Real World". In fact, increasing student motivation is a common objective for Education Research in general. A concept that helps understanding these issues is Authenticity. Shaffer and Resnick identified 4 dimensions to Authenticity: (i) activities aligned with the outside world; (ii) assessment aligned with instruction; (iii) topics aligned with what students want to learn; (iv) methods and questions aligned with professional practices; and argue for a model of "Thick" Authenticity in which all four dimensions are taken into account altogether. In isolation, these dimensions have been linked in the literature to other important themes such as motivation, belonging and professional identity. In this talk we will explore some theoretical models of authenticity and analyze 3 works done at Insper through the lens of Authentic Pedagogy: (I) the C workshop, where we contextualize the usage of C language for 3 simultaneous courses at Insper; (II) the Open Development course, where students learn professional software development skills by contributing to open source software; and (III) a bootcamp like experience for first semester CS majors at Insper. We will conclude this talk with an overview of challenges, current limitations and future work directions.

Bio: Igor Montagner is a Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at INSPER. He received his PhD from the University of São Paulo (Computer Science, 2017) in the areas of Image Processing and Machine Learning. His current research is centered around integrating practical and professional skills into CS courses using Active Learning strategies. His interests also include themes such as professional identity, motivation, authenticity and frequent/automated feedback.