This paper will present a brief history of computing education in England from 1970 to 2014. It sets out to provide the context which shaped the 2014 computing curriculum. After this curriculum had been in place for almost a decade, the paper provides an opportunity to see how computing skills, including information communications technology…

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 significant gender gap continues to exist within computer science (CS) education, despite nationwide emphasis in the U.S. on improving CS education equity and access. To explore this issue, we conducted an ethnographic case study within a classroom at Forest View High School (FVHS, pseudonym) where girls' participation in CS was consistently…

Within the field of K-2 computer science (CS) education, unplugged computational thinking (CT) activities have been suggested as beneficial for younger students and shown to impact young students' skills and motivation to learn about CS. This study sought to examine how children demonstrate CT competencies in unplugged sequencing tasks and how…

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…

This study explores the impact of robotics activities on the creativity and problem-solving performances of secondary school students. The participants consisted of 10 students from a computer science class at a secondary school. The robotics activities utilized Lego Ev3 kits and incorporated reverse engineering principles. Data were gathered…

A context-based approach to education aims to improve students' meaningful learning and uses authentic situations in which scientific concepts are applied. The use of contexts may contribute to the learning of abstract concepts such as algorithms. The selection of appropriate contexts, however, is challenging for teachers. It is therefore…

The increasing demand for computer science (CS) skills underscores the importance of integrating CS education into K-12 curricula to best prepare students for a digitally-driven society. Despite significant progress in expanding access to CS courses, disparities in participation persist, especially among historically underrepresented groups. This…

This study investigated the effectiveness of the 'Match it' card sorting activity for evaluating the student teachers' knowledge and understanding of computational thinking (CT) concepts. One hundred forty-six primary student teachers were asked to sort 26 scenarios and words alongside nine images under five main computational concepts:…

This study analyses the Computer Science (CS) curricula for grades 9 and 10 in Nepal, emphasising students' interests and needs within the social context. The study applied the mixed-methods research design. The quantitative data were collected from questionnaire surveys with students and teachers. The qualitative information was collected from…

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…