Computers and smart devices have become ubiquitous staples of our lives. Computers and computer-controlled devices are used in all industries from medicine to engineering, and textile production. One field where computers have inevitably spread into is education, and one pre-requisite of controlling computers, or increasing the level and…

Pedagogy has emphasized that physical representations and tangible interactive objects benefit learning especially for young students. There are many tangible hardware platforms for introducing computer programming to children, but there is limited comparative evaluation of them in the context of a formal classroom. In this work, we explore the…

This correspondence describes an adaptation of puzzle-based learning to teaching an introductory computer programming course. Students from two offerings of the course--with and without the puzzle-based learning--were surveyed over a two-year period. Empirical results show that the synthesis of puzzle-based learning concepts with existing course…

Specifying file references for hypertext links is an elementary competence that nevertheless draws upon core computational thinking concepts such as tree traversal and the distinction between relative and absolute references. In this article we explore the learning effects of different instructional strategies in the context of an introductory…

In a seminal article published in 2006, Jeanette Wing described computational thinking (CT) as a way of "solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior by drawing on the concepts fundamental to computer science." Wing's article gave rise to an often controversial discussion and debate among computer scientists,…

Enrollment in Computing Science university programs is at a dangerously low level. A major reason for this is the general lack of interest in Computing Science by females. In this paper, we discuss our experience with using a computer game construction environment as a vehicle to encourage female participation in Computing Science. Experiments…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate student understanding and application of computational thinking patterns to novel situations. Over 500 students, who had just designed and programmed a Frogger-style game using the AgentSheets platform, responded to a newly developed video-prompt survey instrument administered in the Fall 2010 semester.…

This Action Research project and Pilot Study was designed and implemented to improve students' hypothetical thinking abilities by exploring the possibility that learning and playing the computer game Minesweeper may inherently help improve hypothetical thinking. One objective was to use educational tools to make it easier for students to learn the…

Teaching of computer programming in elementary and secondary schools has become a very popular activity. The purpose of this paper is to review and analyze the empirical research on the benefits of learning computer programming on students' cognition abilities. The paper focuses on the question: Do the skills of computer programming transfer to…

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…