In the current era where computational literacy holds significant relevance, a growing number of schools across the globe have placed emphasis on K-12 programming education. This field of education primarily comprises two distinct modalities--the block-based programming modality (BPM) and the text-based programming modality (TPM). Previous…

Although previous research has provided some insights into the effects of block-based and text-based programming modalities, there is a dearth of a detailed, multi-dimensional analysis of the transition process from different introductory programming modalities to professional programming learning. This study employed a quasi-experimental design…

Background and Context: We explore the potential for understanding the processes involved in students' programming based on studying their behaviour and dialogue with each other and "conversations" with their programs. Objective: Our aim is to explore how a perspective of inquiry can be used as a point of departure for insights into how…

Prior programming knowledge of students has a major impact on introductory programming courses. Those with prior experience often seem to breeze through the course. Those without prior experience see others breeze through the course and disengage from the material or drop out. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that novice student…

Plagiarism in programming assignments is a common and current challenge. However, insufficient studies have examined plagiarism in the Middle East region. Thus, this research surveyed 422 students from a middle eastern university. It primarily purported to assess the students' perception of plagiarism in writing programming assignments.…

Attention to programming education from K-12 to higher education has been growing with the aim of fostering students' programming ability. This ability involves employing appropriate algorithms and computer codes to solve problems and can be enhanced through practical learning. However, in a formal educational setting, it is challenging to provide…

Computational thinking (CT) is an imperative competency in the 21st century. Mindtools can assist students in understanding concepts and decomposing tasks during CT development through programming. However, students may encounter challenges in complex CT problem-solving tasks due to being confused when using mindtools without proper guidance.…

In this study, a predictive model is constructed to analyze learners' performance in programming tasks using data of programming behavioral events and behavioral sequences. First, this study identifies behavioral events from log data and applies lag sequence analysis to extract behavioral sequences that reflect learners' programming strategies.…

The increased focus on computational thinking has led to the acceptance of computer programming as one of the ways of teaching computational thinking. In 2020, Japan introduced programming education in elementary schools. To understand the current situation of parental involvement at the beginning of programming education, this study aimed to know…

Predictive learning analytics has been widely explored in educational research to improve student retention and academic success in an introductory programming course in computer science (CS1). General-purpose and interpretable dropout predictions still pose a challenge. Our study aims to reproduce and extend the data analysis of a privacy-first…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show great interest in technological devices, and especially in robots. Several studies in the field have suggested that socially assistive robotics (SARs) can help children with ASD in the enhancement of their social skills and communication, and in the reduction of their stereotypical behaviors. Few…

This paper examined the effect of the Unplugged Programming Teaching Aids (UPTA) on students' computational thinking and classroom interaction. A set of UPTA was created and used in a primary school in southern China. A total of 48 students aged 6-8 were assigned to two classes, with the same instructor and learning materials, but only the…

This paper presents the first experiences of the use of an online open-source repository with programming exercises. The repository is independent of any specific teaching approach. Students can search for and select an exercise that trains the programming concepts that they want to train and that only uses the programming concepts they already…

There are many claims that gamification (i.e., using game elements outside games) impact decreases over time (i.e., the novelty effect). Most studies analyzing this effect focused on extrinsic game elements, while fictional and collaborative competition have been recently recommended. Additionally, to the best of our knowledge, no long-term…

With the rise of big data, artificial intelligence, and other emerging information technologies, an increasing number of students without computer science (CS) backgrounds have begun to learn programming. Programming is considered a complex task for beginners, and instructors find it difficult to quickly address all the problems that students…