Secure Code Education (SCE) is the compliance requirement for many organizations in the U.S. Consequently, many U.S. companies spend large sums on programs and tooling to meet this requirement and to upskill their developers. This tooling is largely underutilized. Classes beyond the bare required minimum are often not taken advantage of, leaving…

Block-based programming environments have become increasingly commonplace in computer science education. Despite a rapidly expanding ecosystem of block-based programming environments, text-based languages remain the dominant programming paradigm outside of educational contexts, motivating the transition from block-based to text-based programming.…

What is the value of code in the humanities class, and what does it do for a humanities education? To what degree does code help us think about and compose texts, and to what degree can we engage with it as a text itself? Guided by these framing questions, this dissertation lies at the nexus of digital humanities; rhetoric, writing, and…

Most mathematicians state mathematics is a field of beauty, creativity, and innovation, yet what is echoed by students is not how mathematics allows students to explore, but rather the ways in which it constrains and does not necessitate creativity. In comparison, many students associate coding with freedom, and the ability to create and express…

Computational thinking (CT) has been an increasing focus of research and practice since the seminal paper by Wing in 2006, especially in pre-college (K-12) education. Barr and Stephenson defined CT as a problem-solving methodology that can be automated, transferred, and applied across disciplines. With the challenges of fitting CT into already…

Introductory programming courses typically focus on building generalizable programming knowledge by focusing on a language's syntax and semantics. Assignments often involve "code tracing" problems, where students perform close tracking of code's execution, typically in the context of 'toy' problems. "Reading-first" approaches…

Programming skills are a vital part of many disciplines but can be challenging to teach and learn. Thus, the programming courses are considered difficult and a major stumbling block. To overcome these challenges, students could benefit from extensive individual support such as tutoring, but there are simply not enough qualified tutors available to…

Novice programmers need well-designed instruction and assessment informed by research and critical perspectives to conquer the historical challenges associated with completing introductory computer programming courses successfully. These issues include high dropout and failure rates, the struggle to acquire and retain basic programming knowledge,…

Youth of color are severely underrepresented in STEM which is can be attributed to low socioeconomic status, lack of representation, varying levels of racism faced within different institutions and systems. Without proper support and representation, youth of color can begin to feel that STEM is not a field they identify with or feel they belong.…

Information security practitioners and researchers who possess sufficient depth of conceptual understanding to reconstitute systems after attacks or adapt information security concepts to novel situations are in short supply. Education of new information security professionals with sufficient conceptual depth is one method by which this shortage…

In recent years, computer science has become a cornerstone of modern society. As a result, enrollment in undergraduate computer science programs has expanded rapidly. While the influx of talent into the field will undoubtedly lead to countless technological developments, this growth also brings new pedagogical challenges. Educational resources,…

Prior to instruction, students often possess a common-sense view of motion, which is inconsistent with Newtonian physics. Effective physics lessons therefore involve conceptual change. To provide a theoretical explanation for concepts and how they change, the triangulation model brings together key attributes of prototypes, exemplars, theories,…

Well-educated and informed elementary educators provide the highest of quality instruction to elementary students. Elementary educators are expected to provide instruction from all academic subjects throughout the school day. As standardized testing continues to be a priority in U.S. classrooms, educators must be prepared to continue to deliver…

This is a study of secondary mathematics teachers' use of a digitally enhanced educational technology called Interactive Diagrams (IDs). This study is concerned with the ways in which mathematics teachers use IDs as they plan and enact classroom activities involving this technology, as well as the factors that affect their ID use. Qualitative…

This inquiry explores Integral Theory's prospective value to assist interpreting student teachers' communicated awarenesses for how they make sense of their own pedagogies, acknowledging student teachers' partial existence within post-secondary teacher education circumstances along with emerging twenty-first century conditions. Accordingly, this…