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…

Effective and reliable assessment approaches to computational thinking in secondary education are in demand. This paper uses a guided technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework, incorporating a visual execution environment (VEE) and Scratch project for secondary school students as a method to teach and assess computational…

"Game Maker" is widely used in UK secondary schools, yet under-researched in that context. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative case study that explores how authoring computer games using Game Maker can support the learning of basic programming concepts in a mainstream UK secondary setting. The research draws on the learning…

This paper is part of a wider action research project taking place at a secondary school in South Wales, UK. The overarching aim of the project is to examine the potential for aspects of literacy and computational thinking to be developed using extensible 'build your own block' programming activities. This paper examines classroom talk at an…