Debugging (or troubleshooting) provides a rich context to foster problem-solving. Yet, while we know much about some problems and strategies that novices face in programming on-screen, we know far less about debugging and troubleshooting in the context of physical computing, where coding issues may overlap with materially embedded problems. In…

Artificial Intelligence (AI) permeates every aspect of our daily lives and is no longer a subject reserved for a select few in higher education but is essential knowledge that our youth need for the future. Much is unknown about the level of AI knowledge that is age and developmentally appropriate for high school, let alone about how to teach AI…

Programming is an interdisciplinary practice with applications in both mathematics and computer science. Mathematics concerns rigor, abstraction, and generalization. Computer science predominantly concerns efficiency, concreteness, and physicality. This makes programming a medium for problem solving that mediates between mathematics and computer…

Background: Recent developments in STEM and computer science education put a strong emphasis on twenty-first-century skills, such as solving authentic problems. These skills typically transcend single disciplines. Thus, problem-solving must be seen as a multidisciplinary challenge, and the corresponding practices and processes need to be described…

This paper describes an introductory biology course for undergraduates that heavily incorporates quantitative problem solving in activities and homework assignments. The course is broken up into a series of units, each organized around a motivating biological question or theme. Homework assignments address the theme or question, and typically…

Background: Instructor scaffolding is proved to be an effective means to improve collaborative learning quality, but empirical research indicates discrepancies about the effect of instructor scaffoldings on collaborative programming. Few studies have used multimodal learning analytics (MMLA) to comprehensively analyze the collaborative programming…

Computer science concepts have an important part in other subjects and thinking computationally is being recognized as an important skill for everyone, which leads to the increasing interest in developing computational thinking (CT) as early as at the comprehensive school level. Therefore, research is needed to have a common understanding of CT…

Computational thinking is the capacity of undertaking a problem-solving process in various disciplines (including STEM, i.e. science, technology, engineering and mathematics) using distinctive techniques that are typical of computer science. It is nowadays considered a fundamental skill for students and citizens, that has the potential to affect…

The purpose of this research was to describe the impact of digital game building on fourth grade gifted and talented students' problem-solving, creativity, and collaboration skills. Increasingly, there has been a call to involve students in real-world experiences through projects that explore authentic issues using technology. Game design-based…

This study used CodeMonkey, an online learning platform through which elementary teachers can learn programming while playing games and experience how to integrate STEM into their courses. The study analyzed and examined their experiences using a qualitative research method. According to the research results, learning programming while playing…

My dissertation is situated in the field of computer science education research, specifically, the learning and teaching of programming. This is a critical area to be studied, since, primarily, learning to program is difficult, but also, the need for programming knowledge and skills is growing, now more than ever. This research is particularly…

This study aimed at examining the COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) games having strong potential for helping to enhance intrinsic motivation and computational thinking skills. To this end, STEAM game store was searched with the keywords of "programming, coding, computing, and algorithm". This search yielded 1,249 games. After eliminating…

The integration of computational modelling in science classrooms provides a unique opportunity to promote key 21st century skills including computational thinking (CT) and collaboration. The open-ended, problem-solving nature of the task requires groups to grapple with the combination of two domains (science and computing) as they collaboratively…

Synergistic learning combining computational thinking (CT) and STEM has proven to be an effective method for advancing learning and understanding in a number of STEM domains and simultaneously helping students develop important CT concepts and practices. We adopt a design-based approach to develop, evaluate, and refine our Collaborative,…

This study presents a 13-year (2006-2018) systematic literature review related to the way that computational thinking (CT) has grown in elementary level education students (K-6) with the intention to: (a) present an overview of the educational context/setting where CT has been implemented, (b) identify the learning context that CT is used in…