Many academic teachers present data as static graphics in their lectures and courses. However, data structures have become more complex in the last decades, especially in the biomedical disciplines, and interactive graphics can provide a better means to communicate the scientific contents to students. Besides, the technological qualifications of…

The aim of this research is to determine the effects of Scratch and Alice tools and programming teaching practices on student engagement, reflective thinking and problem-solving skills and computational thinking (CT) comparatively. A quasi-experimental design was used in the research and patterns with pretest-posttest control group were chosen for…

Theorists and educators increasingly highlight the importance of computational thinking in STEM education. While various scaffolding strategies describe how to best support this skillset (i.e., paired programming, worked examples), less research has focused on the design and development of these digital tools. One way to support computational…

Computational thinking skill is one of the basic skills required for every individual, such as reading and writing. For the development of CT, programming education is seen as the key. In the context of programming and CT relationship, it is very important to model individual characteristics and various affective variables with a holistic approach…

The study uses the partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) algorithm to predict the factors affecting the programming performance (PPE) (low, high) of the students receiving computer programming education. The participants of the study consist of 763 students who received programming education. In the analysis of the data, the…

The work presented in this paper examines part of a broader issue in the field of technology-enhanced learning and focused on Massive Open Online Courses environments (MOOC). The main goal is to provide an approach, models and tools to assist teachers in the scenario design process and the operationalization of pedagogical scenarios in a…

Novel technology has been applied to improve students' learning abilities in different disciplines. The research in this field is still finding suitable methodologies, tools, and evaluation mechanisms to devise learning frameworks with high impact on students' performance. This article describes an instructional method to perform Newtonian physics…

Many empirical studies have shown that educational games and recent technologies impact education and increase learning effectiveness, students' motivation and engagement. The overall aim of this study is to evaluate the usability of Imikode, a virtual reality (VR) game that was developed to introduce the concepts of object-oriented programming to…

Full participation in the twenty-first century requires the skills, strategies, and dispositions necessary to adapt to changing technologies influencing all aspects of life. Online programming communities provide a space for youth to create, collaborate, and share as they engage in computational participation. A recent development in the digital…

The development of elementary-aged students' STEM and computer science (CS) literacy is critical in this evolving technological landscape, thus, promoting success for college, career, and STEM/CS professional paths. Research has suggested that elementary-aged students need developmentally appropriate STEM integrated opportunities in the classroom;…

This emerging technology report describes virtual environment interactions an approach for blending movement and computer programming as an embodied way to support girls in building computational thinking skills. The authors seek to understand how body syntonicity might enable young learners to bootstrap their intuitive knowledge in order to…

A science, technology, engineering, and mathematics-influenced classroom requires learning activities that provide hands-on experiences with technological tools to encourage problem-solving skills (Brophy et al. in "J Eng Educ" 97(3):369-387, 2008; Mataric et al. in "AAAI spring symposium on robots and robot venues: resources for AI…

Novice learners find motion as a continuous process of change challenging to understand. In this paper, we present a pedagogical approach based on agent-based, visual programming to address this issue. Integrating agent-based programming, in particular, Logo programming, with curricular science has been shown to be challenging in previous research…

In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of computer programming activities aimed at introducing young students (9-13 years old) to the idea of infinity, and in particular, to the cardinality of infinite sets. This research was part of the "WebLabs" project where students from several European countries explored topics in…