There are increasing calls to introduce computational thinking in schools; the arguments in favor call upon research suggesting that even kindergarten children can successfully engage in coding. This contribution presents a cross-sectional study examining the coding practices and computational thinking of fifty-one primary school children using…

Coding and computational thinking have recently become compulsory skills in many school systems globally. Teaching these new skills presents a challenge for many teachers. A notable example of professional development designed using Constructionist principles to address this challenge is "ScratchEd". Upon reflecting on her experiences…

Learning computer programming for students of the age of 14-18 is difficult and requires endurance and engagement. Being familiar with the syntax of a computer language and writing programs in it are challenges for youngsters, not to mention that understanding algorithms is also a big challenge. To help students in the learning process, teachers…

Background and Context: Recursion in binary trees has proven to be a hard topic. There was not much research on enhancing student understanding of this topic. Objective: We present a tutorial to enhance learning through practice of recursive operations in binary trees, as it is typically taught post-CS2. Method: We identified the misconceptions…

This exploratory study attempts to determine problem solving steps in block based programming environments. The study was carried out throughout one term within Code.org. Participants were 15 6th grade secondary school students enrolled in an IT course at a public secondary school. Observations, screenshots and interviews were analyzed together to…

Computational thinking (CT) has become a necessary skill of students in the 21st century. Various learning approaches have been developed to foster CT among school students. However, these approaches predominantly rely on computer devices and internet connection and fail to promote advanced computer concepts necessary for programming. Therefore,…

Researchers and educators have advocated computational thinking (CT) should be integrated into K-12 settings as early as elementary schools. However, there has been a lack of knowledge of how pre-service K-8 teachers would be engaged in the learning of CT and its integration in different subject areas. In this study, we taught a flipped learning…

Multiple initiatives contend that all students should master computational thinking, including the "Next Generation Science Standards, the K-12 Framework for Computational Thinking," and Code.org. In turn, many physics teachers have begun to explore a variety of approaches to integrating computational modeling through programming. These…

Internationally, coding is increasingly introduced into primary and junior high schools (children generally aged between 5 and 15) on a compulsory basis, though not all stakeholders support this 'initiative'. In response to the public reception, discussion highlights popular argument around compulsory coding in school education. This is an…

Source code plagiarism is an emerging issue in computer science education. As a result, a number of techniques have been proposed to handle this issue. However, comparing these techniques may be challenging, since they are evaluated with their own private dataset(s). This paper contributes in providing a public dataset for comparing these…

Background and Context: Physical computing involves complex negotiations of multiple, on and off-screen tasks, which calls for research on how to best structure collaborative work to ensure equitable learning. Objective: We focus on how pairs self-organized their multi-domain tasks in physical computing, and how their social interactions supported…

In this paper, we provide an overview of the current efforts in maker education, supported by a review of empirical studies. Our synthesis will inform the community about learning outcomes, potential and common issues, challenges, resources, and future research direction regarding maker education.

As students learn how to program, both their programming code and their understanding of it evolves over time. In this work, we present a general data-driven approach, named "Temporal-ASTNN" for modeling student learning progression in open-ended programming domains. Temporal-ASTNN combines a novel neural network model based on abstract…

Collaborative learning is a complex process during which two or more learners exchange opinions, construct shared knowledge, and solve problems together. While engaging in this interactive process, learners' satisfaction toward their partners plays a crucial role in defining the success of the collaboration. If intelligent systems could predict…

In this paper, we use our qualitative research notes and observations to portray a model for integrated STEM education and summarise primary school students' typical and recurring ways in which they engaged with each new robot. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: first, to unpack key elements of the Australian Curriculum: Technologies in order…