UB Annual Report 2020-2021

Profile

Chris Proctor studies K12 Computer Science education through the disciplinary lenses of Learning Sciences and New Literacies. He is interested in the ways computational interfaces (educational technologies as well as social media) can support youth in critical identity authorship. Much of Chris’s work is participatory design-based research, working with middle- and high-school students to design new technologies and then using mixed methods to study the emergent practices they support. Chris is the lead developer and researcher of Unfold Studio, a web application for reading and writing interactive stories which weave together text and code.

Goals

Teaching and Advisement

  1. Develop and teach “Critical Computational Literacies Design Studio” in spring 2021. This course is focused on creating projects which enact critical, literacy-based visions of K12 CS Ed.
  2. Lay the groundwork for a graduate research group in CS Education: Recruit PhD applicants, work with other Learning Science faculty on a LS CISL concentration (including perhaps a seminar course I’d teach), and (Working with CIRCL) build relationships with potential teaching/research school partners.

Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities

Research goals:

  1. Submit one major journal article culminating prior work in the area of computational thinking.
  2. Initiate one new research project grounded in the UB/WNY educational community.

Grant competency goals: In a sense, the success of my research program so far has been based on my ability to secure funding for projects centering equity, justice, and antiracism from groups who would usually fund such work (e.g. NSF). I see grant-seeking as an important medium through which I will articulate and develop my research agenda, and through which I can fund a research community focused on K12 CS Education.

  1. Submit two NSF grants this year: One this fall as participant in a broad collaboration (INCLUDES); the second in the spring with me as a PI (several options).
  2. Process: Hone my craft in grant-writing, particularly learning how Program Officers conceptualize their priorities and responding in these terms. Become more efficient in drawing on my conceptual writing and literature reviews to serve publication and grant-writing. Revise my structures and processes.

Service

  1. Develop a vibrant Learning Sciences community of practice.
  2. Improve LAI PhD students’ research apprenticeship opportunities.

COVID-19 Impact Statement

The COVID-19 pandemic had a substantial impact in my new and ongoing research this year. As a new faculty member at UB whose work is situated in school contexts, this year was almost a total loss for creating new research partnerships with schools. Schools were focused on meeting their students’ immediate needs, and the conditions of remote teaching were not well-suited to research aimed to be generalized beyond the pandemic context.

Several long-running studies were also impacted, requiring a change of focus: This was the second year of a two-year study on a new computer science curriculum I designed at a school in Hong Kong, and I had to delay data collection for a longitudinal study of computer science learners, now in its seventh year.

As you reflect on your research efforts this year, please highlight the ways that your research is attentive to advancing equity and promoting diversity. This may include the subject of your research, or it may pertain to how you structure your research teams(s) and/or activities to be inclusive and attentive to advancing equity, promoting diversity, and/or achieving justice.