Syllabus, CMPSC 190J, Fall 2020

Basic Facts

About this course

CMPSC 190J: Teaching Computer Science

This course is designed for outstanding students who intern as undergraduate mentors in lower division CS courses. Lecture/discussion surveys current research and best practices in CS pedagogy including student development theories, different pedagogical techniques, and methods for assessing learning. Students gain experience working one-on-one with students, fostering positive learning environments, and providing feedback on student work.

Students who successfully complete this course will earn 4 units towards their major field electives by serving as a mentor. They will also be eligible to apply for paid tutoring positions in lower division undergraduate courses in the following quarters.

Final Course Grades

Course grades will be calculated as follows.

Tutoring performance specific to your course

As a tutor, you are a role model to the students in the class. Therefore, your conduct should reflect the values that we would like to instill in our students. With this philosphy in mind, we expect you to be:

Your tutoring performance will be graded along the above dimensions based on observations made by the instructor. You may ask the instructor for feedback around Week 5 during their scheduled office hours or by setting up an appointment with them. This is optional.

For purposes of calculating a final course grade, a numeric value out of 100 will be assigned by your supervising instructor for this portion of your course performance.

190J Course components:

The course has three main components lectures, discussions and homeworks as described below.

Attendance/Participation

Attendance/participation at the weekly lecture sections, and assigned discussion/open hours sessions may be required and mandatory for students enrolled in CS190J. CS190J students should notify their supervising instructor if it is necessary to miss a lecture for an unavoidable reason (e.g. illness, legitimate conflict with academic activity, family emergency.)

Homeworks/In-Class Activitites

Each homeworks or in-Class Activities (ICs) will be worth the same number of points (i.e. normalized to 100 points).

They will be of two types: