Analysis of Effect of Answering Reflection Prompts in a Computer Organization Class

Cheryl Resch; Patriel Stapleton; Benjamin Rheault; Amy Wu; Christina Gardner-McCune

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Educational Research and Methods (ERM) Division Poster Session
Page Count: 15
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40428
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/40428
Download Count: 459

Paper Authors

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Cheryl Resch University of Florida

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Cheryl Resch is an Instructional Assistant Professor in the Engineering Education Department at the University of Florida. She teaches core Computer Science courses and Cybersecurity courses in the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Department. Ms. Resch is also a PhD student in Human Centered Computing. Ms. Resch joined University of Florida in 2017. Prior to that she spent 29 years as an engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The last 15 years of her time at APL she worked on a wide variety of cybersecurity projects. Ms. Resch has a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from University of Maryland and an MS in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University.

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Patriel Stapleton University of Florida

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I'm of Afro-Caribbean descent and spent most of my life raised on the beautiful islands of St. Kitts and Nevis. I am a double Gator at the University of Florida with a B.S. in Computer Science and am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Human-Center Computing. I aim to conduct research that examines and produces technologies that support learning. This is incredibly important as the pace of technologies often advances without concern for the experiences of people of color.

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Abstract

This research paper explores whether requiring students to answer reflection prompts immediately before an exam affects their exam performance. Reflective practice encourages critical thinking and answering reflection prompts can aid students in integrating ideas and developing a holistic view of the material they are studying. In our study, 365 students in a Computer Organization course answered reflection prompts about a course module of their choice (e.g. ARM programming or pipelining). Half the students answered reflection prompts before the first exam, and the other half answered reflection prompts before the second exam. We found that most students who answered reflection prompts immediately before an exam performed significantly better than those who did not. This is a significant result because while reflective practice in Computer Science classes is discussed in the literature, quantitative analysis of performance improvement has been missing until now. A qualitative analysis of responses showed that many students reported that reflection helped them gain a holistic view or conceptual understanding, which is a characteristic of deep learning. This is a significant result given that we did not advise students on why we were asking them to reflect, or what we hoped they would gain from the activity. Our study provides quantitative evidence that answering reflection prompts can help performance on exams and qualitative evidence that reflection can help with conceptual understanding and deep learning and should be considered as a strategy for helping students think critically about course material.

Citation
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Resch, C., & Stapleton, P., & Rheault, B., & Wu, A., & Gardner-McCune, C. (2022, August), Analysis of Effect of Answering Reflection Prompts in a Computer Organization Class Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40428