Guiding students to understand CS concepts and develop process skills using POGIL

This tutorial introduces Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) to CS instructors and students. In a POGIL classroom, teams of 3--5 learners work on activities with a particular structure based on learning cycles. Through scripted inquiry and investigation, learners discover concepts and construct their own knowledge. Using assigned team roles and other scaffolding, learners develop process skills and individual responsibility. The teacher is not a lecturer, but an active facilitator who helps all students to be engaged and achieve the learning objectives. POGIL is an evidence-based approach, and has been shown to improve student performance significantly. Participants will work through POGIL activities as students, and work through POGIL meta-activities that are designed to help teachers learn core POGIL concepts, practices, and benefits. We will share POGIL materials for a variety of CS courses and concepts. We will also invite interested attendees to participate in IntroCS POGIL, a recently funded NSF project working to make it easier for CS faculty to adopt POGIL by disseminating high-quality instructional resources and enhancing professional development practices. For more information, including activities for CS1, CS2, and other courses, see http://cspogil.org and http://pogil.org. Laptops optional.