Inclusive curricular improvement: experiences adapting a strength-based evaluation approach

We describe key factors in adapting to a computing context the Appreciative Inquiry methodology, which emphasizes participatory exploration of a design (e.g., course or curricular design) and encourages and supports diverse perspectives via a story-driven, strengths-based approach. Appreciative Inquiry is a stakeholder-driven, qualitative methodology for exploring a design or organization that focuses on what is working well and how to preserve and build on that success. As a case study, we share our experience using Appreciative Inquiry to evaluate and improve a non-majors’ first-year computer science course that is intended to support diverse students. We describe the methods that we used to give context to our adaptation of Appreciative Inquiry. We then highlight our reflections on our evaluation and the strategies that we learned from this context to effectively apply Appreciative Inquiry. We believe that our approach yielded different and deeper results than we would have found had we not used Appreciative Inquiry. Further, we believe that its focus on strengths may have attracted participants who would not have otherwise participated; its participatory nature is a practical way to include students and teaching assistants as co-evaluators and give power to their voices. We argue that other computer science educators should consider trying this approach to tap into perspectives and input overlooked by more common research methods which focus instead on quantitative data collection or addressing deficiencies and problems.