research-article

Investigating the Role of Being a Mentor as a Way of Increasing Interest in CS

Authors:

Jody Clarke-Midura,

Kevin CloseAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE '16: Proceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education

Pages 297 - 302

https://doi.org/10.1145/2839509.2844581

Published: 17 February 2016 Publication History

Abstract

In order to affect career decisions, it is important to reach youth at early ages. While some have focused on using mentors in order to successfully teach mentees, few have focused on the benefits to the mentors themselves. To our knowledge, no other research has been conducted on the effect that serving as a near-peer mentor has on increasing the mentors' interest, self-efficacy, value-beliefs, and skills in computer science. Our paid mentorships provided youth two weeks of participation in computer science camps using App Inventor. The mentors in our pilot study increased self-efficacy and interest after the mentoring activity, on average. This all-female mentoring experience provided opportunities to transcend barriers such as negative stereotyping and lack of role models. We feel that being able to reach high school girls at a critical stage makes this pedagogical approach ideal. The positive results, even with the short duration of the intervention, are encouraging.

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Aloisio JRoberts SBecker-Klein RDunifon SLewis JClark JMunshi-South JTingley K(2022)Impacts of a Near-Peer Urban Ecology Research Mentoring Program on Undergraduate MentorsFrontiers in Ecology and Evolution10.3389/fevo.2022.80321010Online publication date: 28-Apr-2022
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Index Terms

Investigating the Role of Being a Mentor as a Way of Increasing Interest in CS
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. K-12 education

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cover image ACM Conferences

SIGCSE '16: Proceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education

February 2016

768 pages

ISBN:9781450336857

DOI:10.1145/2839509

General Chairs:
Carl Alphonce
University at Buffalo
,
Jodi Tims
Baldwin Wallace University
,
Program Chairs:
Michael Caspersen
Aarhus University
,
Stephen Edwards
Virginia Tech University

Copyright © 2016 ACM.

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Published: 17 February 2016

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Overall Acceptance Rate 1,595 of 4,542 submissions, 35%

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3699538.3699544
Remshagen AHuett K(2023)Youth Hackathons in Computing for the Community: A Design CaseTechTrends10.1007/s11528-023-00852-y67:3(508-520)Online publication date: 5-May-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-023-00852-y
Aloisio JRoberts SBecker-Klein RDunifon SLewis JClark JMunshi-South JTingley K(2022)Impacts of a Near-Peer Urban Ecology Research Mentoring Program on Undergraduate MentorsFrontiers in Ecology and Evolution10.3389/fevo.2022.80321010Online publication date: 28-Apr-2022
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Mbogo CHawthorne EPérez-Quiñones MHeckman SZhang J(2019)A Structured Mentorship Model for Computer Science University Students in KenyaProceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3287324.3287447(1109-1115)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2019
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Clarke-Midura JPoole FPantic KHamilton MSun CAllan VBarnes TGarcia DHawthorne EPérez-Quiñones M(2018)How Near Peer Mentoring Affects Middle School MenteesProceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3159450.3159525(664-669)Online publication date: 21-Feb-2018
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