Playing to Your Strengths: Appreciative Inquiry as a Scholarly Tool for Your Computing Education Practice and Professional Development

Abstract

In this workshop, adapted from our SIGCSE 2018 workshop [1], we as a group will use Appreciative Inquiry [2] (AI) techniques to explore and develop our strengths as computer science educators. Participants will gain appreciation for their strengths as an educator, with concrete plans for building on these strengths. They will also learn about Appreciative Inquiry as a qualitative research methodology that is complementary to more common computer science research methodologies, and that they can apply to evaluate and improve their own educational practice. Appreciative Inquiry drives change by building on what's already working well in an organization. Similarly to other qualitative methods, AI generates rich, deep feedback that is grounded in stakeholders' experiences, but in contrast to other methods its focus on strengths and positives surface unique, strength-based findings and make it an energizing and fulfilling approach to professional development and the scholarship of teaching and learning. We will share our materials and key tips to enable participants to apply Appreciative Inquiry in their own work. Participants may wish to run Appreciative Inquiry workshops with students as an evaluation method, or run them with colleagues for professional development or for promoting positive change in their unit or program, or take smaller steps integrating the appreciative mindset into their teaching or other professional work.