CERP Receives Exemplary Paper Award for SIGCSE 2017

A paper from CRA’s Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline (CERP) was recently named an “Exemplary paper” in the 2017 SIGCSE Proceedings. New this year, the SIGCSE program chairs recognized a new category of the top 25% of accepted papers as “Exemplary papers”, highlighted for their accomplishment of high quality, novelty and broad appeal to reviewers.

The paper, “Examining the Relationship Between Introductory Computing Course Experiences, Self Efficacy, and Belonging Among First Generation College Women,” was written by Jennifer Blaney, a Ph.D. student at UCLA and the senior data manager for the BRAID research project, and Jane Stout, director of CERP.

From the abstract:

Computing self-efficacy and sense of belonging are known predictors of motivation and persistence. As such, these psychological states are important to study in order to broaden participation in computing. This study examined the relationship between (a) introductory computing course experiences and (b) self-efficacy and sense of belonging in computing, focusing on differences by gender and college generation status. We found that the relationship between some introductory course experiences and self-efficacy and sense of belonging was strongest among first-generation college women, which reveals the importance of considering women’s experiences in light of their additional intersectional identities. Recommendations for best practices in introductory computing courses are discussed.

Click here to view the full paper.