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…

In the last two decades, computational thinking has gained wide relevance in international educational systems. The inclusion of this new type of thinking poses educational challenges with some underlying research questions that need to be answered to meet these challenges with quality. Thus, this study focuses on analyzing the difficulties that…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Electrochemistry is a branch of chemistry concerned with the interrelation of electrical and chemical effects, in which mathematical equations are employed to describe the fundamental principles of electrode processes and measurement methods. In this work, we present a graphical simulation that provides visual observations of dynamical behavior…

The aim of the research is to understand in-service and pre-service preschool teachers' perceptions of coding after their lived experiences to develop suggestions regarding incorporating coding practices into early childhood education. The study employed a phenomenological design with a total of 28 pre-service and in-service preschool teachers (19…

The ability to program in R, an open-source statistical program, is increasingly valued across job markets, including ecology. The benefits of teaching R to undergraduates are abundant, but learning to code in R may induce anxiety for students, potentially leading to negative learning outcomes and disengagement. Anecdotes suggest a gender…

Software engineers are tasked with writing functionally correct code of high quality. Maintainability is a crucial code quality attribute that determines the ease of analyzing, modifying, reusing, and testing a software component. This quality attribute significantly affects the software's lifetime cost, contributing to developer productivity and…

Concurrency is a complex to learn topic that is becoming more and more relevant, such that many undergraduate Computer Science curricula are introducing it in introductory programming courses. This paper investigates the combined use of Sonic Pi and Team-Based Learning to mitigate the difficulties in early exposure to concurrency. Sonic Pi, a…

In the wake of the so-called fourth industrial revolution, computer programming has become a foundational competency across engineering disciplines. Yet engineering students often resist the notion that computer programming is a skill relevant to their future profession. Here are presented two activities aimed at supporting the early development…

For most beginners, learning computer programming is a complex undertaking. Demotivation and learned helplessness have been widely reported. In addition to the subject's complexity, low in-class involvement has been linked to poor student performance. This work introduces a novel instructional technique called Student-Driven Probe Instruction…

Educators who teach programming subjects are often wondering "which programming language should I teach first?" The debate behind this question has a long history and coming up with a definite answer to this question would be farfetched. Nonetheless, several efforts can be identified in the literature wherein pros and cons of mainstream…

Block-based programming languages (BBLs) have been proposed as a way to prepare students for learning to program in more sophisticated, text-based languages, such as Java. Hybrid BBLs add the ability to view and edit the block commands in auto-generated, text-based code. We compared the use of a non-hybrid BBL (Scratch), a hybrid BBL (Pencil…