This study investigates computer programming ('coding') activities of Primary School Children; we ask if there is evidence of gender differences in their coding activities. The research took place in an English urban school with around 180 children on role, mostly from a middle-class social background. The study involved a class of 17 boys and 15…

In light of current developments, there is an increasing effort to integrate computing-oriented activities into the education of children as young as two years old. Although the computing strand is not officially addressed in the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework (DfES, 2024), a small number of early years teachers in England…

A national curriculum for the study of computing became compulsory in English secondary schools in September 2014, replacing the study of information and communications technology with computer science (CS). This posed difficulties for teachers and students who did not have knowledge or experience of programming. This study was designed to…

Aim/Purpose: To encourage students' engagement in peer assessments and provide students with better-quality feedback, this paper describes a technique for author-reviewer matching in peer assessment systems -- a Balanced Allocation algorithm. Background: Peer assessment concerns evaluating the work of colleagues and providing feedback on their…

Digital skills are beneficial for young people and society, but some individuals, particularly girls, are less likely to choose computing post-compulsory education. Coding is a crucial skill in the school computing curriculum. The authors collected survey data from 4983 secondary-school students (ages 11-16) as well as conducted exploratory factor…

Gender balance in computing education is a decades-old issue that has been the focus of much previous research. In K-12, the introduction of mandatory computing education goes some way to giving all learners the opportunity to engage with computing throughout school, but a gender imbalance still persists when computer science becomes an elective…