Research on mental model representations developed by programmers during parallel program comprehension is important for informing and advancing teaching methods including model-based learning and visualizations. The goals of the research presented here were to determine: how the mental models of programmers change and develop as they learn…

Educational curricula in data analysis are increasingly fundamental to statistics, data science, and a wide range of disciplines. The educational literature comparing coding syntaxes for instruction in data analysis recommends utilizing a simple syntax for introductory coursework. However, there is limited prior work to assess the pedagogical…

Throughout a programming course, students develop various source code tasks. Using these tasks to track students' progress can provide clues to the strengths and weaknesses found in each learning topic. This practice allows the teacher to intervene in learning in the first few weeks of class and maximize student gains. However, the biggest…

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.…

Real-time collaborative programming (RCP), which allows multiple programmers to work concurrently on the same codebase with changes instantly visible to all participants, has garnered considerable popularity in higher education. Despite this trend, little work has rigorously examined how undergraduates engage in collaborative programming when…

In this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of cooperative learning on the computational thinking skills and academic performances of middle school students in the computational problem-solving approach. We used the pretest-posttest control group design of the quasiexperimental method. In the research, computational problem-solving…

Large Language Model (LLM) artificial intelligence tools present a unique challenge for educators who teach programming languages. While LLMs like ChatGPT have been well documented for their ability to complete exams and create prose, there is a noticeable lack of research into their ability to solve problems using high-level programming…

We evaluate the effectiveness of reading aloud a program code in learning programming from a neuroscientific perspective by measuring brain activity using a near-infrared spectroscopy device. The results show that when reading aloud and then reading silently, brain activity increases during reading aloud; a similar trend is observed when the…

The use of a pedagogical approach mediated transfer with the bridging method has been successful in facilitating the transitions from block-based to text-based programming languages. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research addressing the impact of this transfer on programming misconceptions during the transition. The way programming concepts are…

Despite the elevated importance of Data Science in Statistics, there exists limited research investigating how students learn the computing concepts and skills necessary for carrying out data science tasks. Computer Science educators have investigated how students debug their own code and how students reason through foreign code. While these…

Background: The present study analyses the design of programming literacy in the sixth grade of Primary Education, starting from the use of simple activities with visual block-based programming, through "Scratch," and progressively linking difficulty to the use of the "Unity" engine, and the "C#" language, with simple…

The field of Cryptography is rapidly evolving, and the development of quantum computers is on the rise. Lattice-based cryptosystems are promising candidates for quantum resistance, and it is the responsibility of institutions to prepare students for related careers. Undergraduate students in mathematics and mathematics-adjacent fields can -- and…

Programming education is an important educational process that enables the development of children's problem solving and algorithmic thinking skills. It is known that children frequently encounter syntax problems in coding activities. Many block-based programming software has been developed to eliminate this difficulty in the learning process.…

Data science programming presents many challenges for programmers entering the field. Roughly, data science programming can be broken up into several activities: data wrangling, analysis, modeling, or visualization. Data wrangling is an important first step that involves cleaning and shaping tabular data--or dataframes--into a form amenable for…

During a relatively short period of time, programming has been implemented in the national curriculum of the compulsory school in Sweden. Since 2018, programming is a new content in the technology subject and the research field has discussed some of the challenges teachers and students, who generally have little experiences of programming, face…