Does Studio-Based Instruction Work in CS 1? An Empirical Comparison with a Traditional Approach

Given the increasing importance of communication, teamwork, and critical thinking skills in the computing profession, we believe there is good reason to provide students with increased opportunities to learn and practice those skills in undergraduate computing courses. Toward that end, we have been exploring studio-based instructional methods, which have been successfully employed in architecture and fine arts education for over a century. We have developed an adaptation of studio-based instruction for computing education called the pedagogical code review, which is modeled after the code inspection process used in the software industry. To evaluate its effectiveness, we carried out a quasi-experimental comparison of a "studio-based" CS 1 course with pedagogical code reviews and an identical "traditional" CS 1 course without pedagogical code reviews. We found no learning outcome differences between the two courses; however, we did observe two interesting attitudinal trends: (a) self-efficacy decreased more in the traditional course than in the studio-based course; and (b) peer learning decreased in the traditional course, but increased in the studio-based course. Additional questionnaire and interview data provide further evidence of the positive impact of studio-based instruction.