Integrating computer science (CS) content into existing STEM curricula emerges as a viable solution to broadening rural students' participation in CS, but rural students have a significant proficiency gap in science and mathematics. By focusing on an English language arts course as the context for CS integration, this exploratory study examined…

The design of algorithms is one of the hardest topics of high school computer science. This is mainly due to the universality of algorithms as solution methods that guarantee the calculation of a correct solution for all potentially infinitely many instances of an algorithmic problem. The goal of this paper is to present a comprehensible and…

This study aims to examine the current experiences of high school students in computer science (CS) courses and the factors that motivated them to continue their future enrollment. The participants were 603 high school students in grades 9 through 12 in Indiana, all of whom enrolled in at least one CS course during the 2020-2021 academic year.…

Collaborative dialogue offers rich insights into students' learning and critical thinking. This is essential for adapting pedagogical agents to students' learning and problem-solving skills in STEM+C settings. While large language models (LLMs) facilitate dynamic pedagogical interactions, potential hallucinations can undermine confidence, trust,…

Purpose: The presented study was conducted to unpack high school students' motivational influences in engineering/computer science project-based learning (PjBL), using the attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction (ARCS) model of motivation as a conceptual framework. Methods: A qualitative research approach was used with student focus…

Background and Context: Debugging is a challenging yet understudied practice within recent collaborative K-12 physical computing contexts. We examined think-aloud interviews and reflections of seven high school student pairs who debugged researcher-designed buggy electronic textile projects. Objective: We asked: (1) What strategies did student…

Computer Science (CS) is a vital subject in K-12 education, and acquiring proficiency in CS is essential for nurturing talent. However, current teaching practices often rely on standardized tests to evaluate academic performance, which may not offer a comprehensive and multidimensional assessment of students' competency in learning CS.…

This study investigates the integration of adaptive e-learning and gamification through a platform called NgodingSeru.com to improve problem-solving skills in programming among vocational high school students. The adaptive system offers personalized learning by adjusting task difficulty to student's proficiency levels, while gamification elements…

Background: Many studies have highlighted the positive effects of visual programming instruction (VPI) on students' learning experiences, programming self-efficacy and flow experience. However, there is a notable gap in the research on how these factors specifically impact programming achievement and learning intentions. Our study addresses this…

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…

The aim of this explanatory study is to identify the causes of intrinsic cognitive load in programming process. For this purpose, a method based on two dimensions; programming knowledge types (syntactic, semantic, and strategic) and programming constructs was proposed. The proposed method was tested with high school students enrolled in Computer…

Computer Science (CS) Unplugged activities are designed to engage students with CS concepts. It is an active learning approach combining physical interaction with visual representation. This research article investigates the impact of CS Unplugged on students' understanding of the bubble sort algorithm. Algorithm visualization, traditionally…

Most existing autograders used for grading programming assignments are based on unit testing, which is tedious to implement for programs with graphical output and does not allow testing for other code aspects, such as programming style or structure. We present a novel autograding approach based on machine learning that can successfully check the…

This paper presents a new developed methodology for teaching and learning subjects that although are very important in the modern digital society are neglected in high school education programs: cybersecurity and cyber safety. A Study among the EU high schools in 2021-2022 revealed that computer science teachers are not regularly upgrading their…

Statistics teaching at the high school level needs modernizing to include digital sources of data that students interact with every day. Algorithmic modeling approaches are recommended, as they can support the teaching of data science and computational thinking. Research is needed about the design of tasks that support high school statistics…