No abstract

Our work is situated in research on Computer Science (CS) learning in informal learning environments and literature on the factors that influence girls to enter CS. In this article, we outline design choices around the creation of a summer programming camp for middle school youth. In addition, we describe a near-peer mentoring model we used that was influenced by Bandura's self-efficacy theory. The purpose of this article, apart from promoting transparency of program design, was to evaluate the effectiveness of our camp design in terms of increasing youths’ interest, self-efficacy beliefs, and perceptions of parental support. We found significant gains for all three of these concepts. Additionally, we make connections between our design choices (e.g., videos, peer support, mentor support) and the affective gains by thematically analyzing interview data concerning the outcomes found in our camps.

No abstract

In this study, we present an educational board game designed to promote both mathematics and Chinese language learning. We use text‐mining techniques to analyze dialog by 40 students, in six groups playing a board game in a dual language immersion context. Our findings provide evidence to support past claims and arguments that play and specifically play within board games can provide a learning environment in which students can experiment with concepts and language without fear of failure. In our study, we not only found that learners were willing and excited to use their L2 skills within the context of the game but also that the board game promoted peer learning, which subsequently provided support for both math and language development.

No abstract