Amy J. Ko was inspired to study computer science after finding out she could play Tetris on her graphing calculator. While the original game was incredibly slow you could watch the pieces move by the pixel Ko and a group of friends were inspired to code a faster version.

She eventually majored in computer science, but her interests in human behavior led to a double degree in psychology. While many of Kos peers wanted to be software engineers, she paved her own academic path to study how people solve computing problems.

In a way, I was trying to construct this informatics degree at my university, smashing together computer science and behavioral sciences, she said.

Today, Ko is a professor at the Information School, directing the Code & Cognition Lab and researching how people of different backgrounds make sense of computer education. She has worked with students from colleges and K-12 schools, as well as learners from coding bootcamps.

Most students approached computer science with a fixed mindset of who is or isnt a programmer. If a student doesnt look like the stereotypical geek, they are likely to believe that their capabilities make them not destined to be a software engineer.

However, Ko challenged this preconceived thinking by focusing on the current coding pedagogy. She discovered that the factors that make a successful programmer depend on the strategies the students were taught.

Ko led a study that divided participants into two groups. One was taught computing the conventional way, similar to the education in CSE 142, and the other was given a strategy to think through a coding problem.

Every week, students were asked to journal on whether they thought they were capable of programming. The results found that the group with the intervention increased their self-belief, thinking that they could be a developer one day, while that of the conventional group decreased over time.

Its not so much about whether or not somebody is smart enough, Ko said. Its much more about whether or not they have good teachers who are teaching good strategies and structuring peoples learning successfully.

Ko conducted interviews with participants to qualitatively assess the learners understanding of the process. The difference between the two groups was judged based on the questions that students asked when seeking help.

In the control group, participants asked more disempowered questions, such as how do I do this? and solve this problem for me, because they didnt know where to start. Meanwhile, participants in the intervention group asked questions that showed more creative problem-solving skills.

Their questions were much more like I can do this, I just dont know which approach to take, give me a better approach, Ko said.

The research concluded that, while teaching correct strategies is important in computing education, self-belief is powerful in driving students to succeed as software engineers. In her work, Ko thinks carefully about how to communicate these strategies effectively, signaling to students that everybody will be successful regardless of who they are.

Her research views diversity as the cultures and signals in a learning community that establish a notion of belonging. Sadly, computing education across the world has an elitist and tribal culture of judging who is good enough.

Wired reported that white men have continually dominated computer science departments in the United States since 1991. Even Stack Overflow, an online computing forum, pervades an idle boys club chatter that discourages women and novice developers from feeling welcomed in the culture.

Since the K-12 learning environment is open to new discoveries, Ko hopes that her research can help educators make computing education more focused on teamwork and inclusion. For anybody who is starting to program, Ko finds the best way to succeed in this field is to learn with others.

You need to create your own culture of affirmation and belonging, Ko said. If you can create a community of people of your own making, thats a space for you to thrive in.

Reach reporter Anh Nguyen at science@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @thedailyanh

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An inclusive computer science education starts with a culture of affirmation, Amy Ko says - Dailyuw