Computer programming is a skill of increasing importance in scientific and technological fields. However, in introductory computer science (CS1) courses in higher education, approximately one in every three students fails. A common reason is that students are overwhelmed by an accelerated and inflexible pace of learning that jeopardizes success.…

The lack of participation of girls in programming robotics is well documented in the international literature on the subject. The Inspired Towards Science, Engineering and Technology (I-SET) is a community engagement project that promotes science engagement in predominantly disadvantaged communities. In this paper, we present the findings of an…

Teaching computer programming to children and adolescents has become popular in recent years. This popularity has resulted in increased research into techniques for teaching introductory programming using visual languages, especially block-based languages. This study aims to explore new possibilities for teaching programming by adopting a hybrid…

The purpose of this action research was to evaluate the effect educational robotics have on the programming comprehension and motivation of preservice teachers. Computer science is increasingly being integrated into K-8 curricula across the country. However, there are few teachers trained to teach basic computer science concepts. Core subject…

The use of Scratch programming in introducing text-based programming to novices at all levels of education has gained prominence in computer science but is still hardly known among pre-service teachers. With affordances of Scratch in learning text-based programming, we present an experience report on how we supported our first-year pre-service…

This article describes a unique ongoing experience of learning programming via engagement in music programming of known melodies. Seventh and eighth graders participated in 10 lessons of weekly activity. Via the programming of melodies, using the Scratch 2.0 environment, they became acquainted with basic concepts of programming such as methods,…

Computer games are effective instructional tools used in programming courses to increase students' motivation and engagement. This participatory action research aims to redesign the Object-Oriented Programming course in which the first author is both the instructor and researcher to make it more effective and efficient. In the first step of the…

This discussion examines the ever-increasing impact of top-down nation-wide educational reforms on teachers in Japan, exemplified in the 2020 reform. Its unique contribution is a suggestion of an interdisciplinary framework: programming education and English as a foreign language education in elementary schools. Many elementary school teachers are…

This article reports on an action research project on improving a functional programming course by moving toward a practical and flexible study environment--flipped and blended classroom. Teaching the topic of functional programming was found to be troublesome using a traditional lectured course format. The need to increase students' amount of…

The purpose of this action research study was to measure the transactional distance of computer science students who participated in an online virtual community after completing a college preparation program. Using data and results generated from previous cycles of research I developed and moderated an online virtual community designed to lessen…

The lack of diversity in the technology workforce in the United States has proven to be a stubborn problem, resisting even the most well-funded reform efforts. With the absence of computer science education in the mainstream K-12 curriculum, only a narrow band of students in public schools go on to careers in technology. The problem persists…

The challenge of teaching programming in higher education is complicated by problems associated with large class teaching, a prevalent situation in many developing countries. This paper reports on an investigation into the use of a blended learning approach to teaching and learning of programming in a class of more than 200 students. A course and…

The emergence of new technologies such as three-dimensional virtual worlds brings new opportunities for teaching and learning. We conducted an action research approach to the analysis of how teaching and learning of computer programming at the university level could be developed within the Second Life virtual world. Results support the notion that…

Lecturing is known to be a controversial form of teaching. With massed classrooms, in particular, it tends to constrain the active participation of students. One of the remedies applied to programming education is to use technology that can vitalize interaction in the classroom, while another is to base teaching increasingly on programming…

Contributing student pedagogy (CSP) builds upon social constructivist and community-based learning principles to create engaging and productive learning experiences. What makes CSP different from other, related, learning approaches is that it involves students both learning from and also explicitly valuing the contributions of other students. The…