While computational thinking arises as an essential skill worldwide, formal primary and secondary education in Latin America rarely incorporates mechanisms to develop it in their curricula. The extent to which students in the region acquire computational thinking skills remains largely unknown. To start addressing this void, this article presents…

Contribution: Expand the scope of factors influencing self-efficacy and highlight the importance of teaching quality, peer support, perceived course value, the moderating effects of self-regulation, and adversity quotient (AQ). Background: Self-efficacy has been regarded as an important factor in students' learning performance. However, little…

Artificial intelligence (AI) in programming teaching is something that still has to be explored, since in this area assessment tools that allow grading the students work are the most common ones, but there are not many tools aimed toward providing feedback to the students in the process of creating their program. In this work a small sized…

Contribution: This research study deploys three serious games with various topics in an entry-level C Programming module and investigates students' learning outcomes. The study also explores whether learners belonging to different subgroups benefit more from the use of serious games than their peers. The subgroups are formed based on learner…

There were few papers for interdisciplinary integration of Scratch programming, English learning, and local cultures as far as the digital animated E-book creation of elementary schools was concerned. This article proposes an interdisciplinary innovative teaching mode, with college students as teachers, Scratch programming and English learning as…

Contribution: The main contribution is to provide practitioners and researchers with an insight in efficiently and effectively employing multi-attribute decision making (MADM) methods in e-learning website selection problems. Background: Advances in information systems and the Internet have resulted in e-learning websites becoming an important…

Contribution: This article proposes a new theoretical model with a goal to develop future human computational thinking (CT) in foundational computer science (CS) education. The model blends six critical types of thinking, i.e., logical thinking, systems thinking, sustainable thinking, strategic thinking, creative thinking, and responsible thinking…

An increase in student motivation is often cited as an expected effect of software visualization, but, as far as the authors are aware, no controlled experiments have yet demonstrated this. This paper therefore presents a controlled evaluation of this effect, conducted within the framework of self-determination theory. Students were tasked with…

This paper describes a study of teaching a programming language in a C programming course by having students assemble and program a low-cost mobile robot. Writing their own programs to define the robot's behavior raised students' motivation. Working in small groups, students programmed the robots by using the control structures of structured…

Contribution: This article has shown that self-efficacy in performing complex computer programming tasks and the self-regulation of electrical and electronics engineering undergraduate students varies with respect to the class standing and prior experience in computer programming. Background: Computer programming is an essential skill that all…

Contribution: A first-year programming course was redesigned with a large, open-ended robotics project. The course design aligns with best practices for promoting development of students' self-efficacy in solving ill-structured software design problems. Background: From Jonassen's theory, problem-solving outcomes are dependent on the problem…

This study explores students' cognitive processes while debugging programs by using an eye tracker. Students' eye movements during debugging were recorded by an eye tracker to investigate whether and how high- and low-performance students act differently during debugging. Thirty-eight computer science undergraduates were asked to debug two C…

Contribution: An online genetic algorithm-based remedial learning system is presented in order to strengthen students' understanding of object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts by tailoring personalized learning materials according to each student's strengths and weaknesses. Background: Prior studies on computer programming education have…

Contribution: Prior studies on tangible versus graphical user interfaces have reported controversial findings concerning children's preferences. This paper shows that their preference profiles in the domain of introductory programming are associated with gender and age for both interfaces. Background: The relevant literature mainly consists of…

Contribution: A model of tiered in-lab, compulsory lab programming sessions suitable for use in flipped learning environments. This article also addresses the scarcity of research that explores the effects of in-class activity organization. Background: When facing a subject they perceive as dry or difficult, some students may feel discouraged from…