Background and Context: School principals and school guidance counsellors can be very influential in deciding what subjects are offered on the curriculum, how they are promoted and who they are targeted to. For that reason, exploring their views of Computer Science (CS) as a subject can help unearth potential barriers that may hinder the wider…

Background and Context: Computing education is expanding, while the teaching of algorithms is less well studied. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching algorithms. Method: We conducted semi-structured interviews with seven computer science (CS) teachers in upper secondary…

Background and Context: Collaborative and cooperative learning is important to prepare students for their future work and to increase their learning performance in university courses. Several studies have shown promising results regarding team activities, such as pair programming. However, there is little information on how teamwork is currently…

Background and Context: Current programming learning research often compares novices and experienced programmers, leaving early learning stages and emotional and cognitive states under-explored. Objective: Our study investigates relationships between cognitive and emotional states and learning performance in early stage programming learners with…

Background and Context: To offer more experiences in the field, our study employed secondary school pre-service teachers as assistants in courses for secondary school students learning computer coding with the help of smart textiles. Objective: Did pre-service teachers assisting in CS courses have more highly developed pedagogical content…

Background and Context: We explore the potential for understanding the processes involved in students' programming based on studying their behaviour and dialogue with each other and "conversations" with their programs. Objective: Our aim is to explore how a perspective of inquiry can be used as a point of departure for insights into how…

Background and Context: During online learning, it is essential to provide instructional guidance to support learning. However, guidance can be given in different forms and quantities. Thus, one important challenge is to provide the right amount and type of instructional guidance. Objective: The aim of the study is to investigate types of guidance…

Background and Context: Students learning the C programming language struggle to debug, and to understand the runtime behaviour of, their programs. Objective: We examine a tool that combines several novice-focused error detection, program visualization, and debugging techniques, to investigate which features students use in real study sessions,…

Background and Context: Although context-based teaching and learning has been investigated extensively in science education, little is known regarding the use of contexts for teaching CS in secondary education. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the characteristics of contexts suitable for teaching algorithms and to investigate…

Background and context: Transfer is a process where students apply their learning to different contexts. This process includes using their knowledge to solve problems with similar complexity, and in new contexts. In the context of programming, transfer also includes being able to understand and use different programming languages. Objective: This…

Background and context: This study investigates differences in views of girl and boy members of a CS club. Objective: Understanding differences in the views of girls and boys regarding perceived parental attitudes and values, social support, appreciation of CS, and engagement in science and CS. Understanding differences in girls' and boys' view of…

Background: Conceptual models are an essential phase in software design, but they can create confusion and reduced performance for students in Database Design courses. Objective: A novel Relational Data Model Validation Tool (MVTool) was developed and tested to determine (1) if students who use MVTool perform better than those who do not, and (2)…

Background and Context: There are studies which indicate that computer programming supports high-level abilities for everyone such as creative thinking, questioning, problem solving and critical thinking which are considered within the scope of 21st-century abilities. Objective: The current experimental study was carried out to put forth the…

Background and Context: Computational Thinking (CT) has been recently integrated into new and revised Digital Technologies content (DTC) in the Technology learning area of the New Zealand School Curriculum. Objective: To aid this change, this research examined how CT supports learning outcomes in both music and programming with the Sonic Pi…

Emerging careers in technology-focused fields such as data science coupled with necessary graduate outcomes mandate the need for a truly interdisciplinary pedagogical approach. However, the rapid pace of curriculum development in this field of inquiry has meant that curricula across universities has largely evolved in line with the internal…