Game based-learning have been widely promoted to overcome the difficulties encountered by beginners to learn programming. However, there are many issues to address for the implementation of game-based learning. Indeed, game-based learning is not limited to adding game elements such as rewards to a learning situation, but it rather consists of…

In recent years, computing education researchers have investigated the impact of problem context on students' learning and programming performance. This work continues the investigation motivated, in part, by cognitive load theory and educational research in computer science and other disciplines. The results of this study could help inform…

Objectives: Java is a popular programming language for use in computing education, but it is difficult to get a wide picture of the issues that it presents for novices; most studies look only at the types or frequency of errors. In this observational study, we aim to learn how novices use different features of the Java language. Participants:…

Background: Coding has become an integral part of STEM education. However, novice learners face difficulties in processing codes within embedded structures (also termed nested structures). This study aimed to investigate the cognitive mechanism underlying the processing of embedded coding structures based on hierarchical complexity theory, which…

Prior studies in the Computer Science education literature have illustrated that novices make many mistakes in composing SQL queries. Query formulation proves to be difficult for students. Only recently, some headway was made towards understanding why SQL leads to so many mistakes, by uncovering student misconceptions. In this article, we shed new…

Computational thinking is an important competence for learners in the twenty-first century. As an effective approach for cultivating competence in computational thinking, programming education has been extended from college to elementary school teaching. However, it is challenging to engage beginners in programming in elementary school education.…

Theorists and educators increasingly highlight the importance of computational thinking in STEM education. While various scaffolding strategies describe how to best support this skillset (i.e., paired programming, worked examples), less research has focused on the design and development of these digital tools. One way to support computational…

Novice programmers often encounter difficulties performing debugging tasks effectively. Even if modern development environments (IDEs) provide high-level support for navigating through code elements and for identifying the right conditions leading to the bug, debugging still requires considerable human effort. Programmers usually have to make…

Background and Context: Research in programming education seems to show that hands-on writing at the keyboard is beneficial for learning, but we lack an explanation of why that is and an underlying theory to anchor that explanation. Objective: The first objective is to lay out a theoretical foundation for understanding the learning situation when…

A posttest-only control group experimental design compared novice Arduino programmers who developed their own programs (self-programming group, n = 17) with novice Arduino programmers who used ChatGPT 3.5 to write their programs (ChatGPT-programming group, n = 16) on the dependent variables of programming scores, interest in Arduino programming,…

This study examined the effects of worked examples with different explanation types and novices' motivation on cognitive load, and how this subsequently influenced their programming problem-solving performance. Given the study's emphasis on both instructional approaches and learner motivation, the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning served as…

In programming problem solving activities, sometimes, students need feedback to progress in the course, being positively affected by the received feedback. This paper presents an overview of the state of the art and practice of the feedback approaches on introductory programming. To this end, we have carried out a systematic literature mapping to…

Learning computer programming can be challenging for primary school students due to its abstract concepts. While teachers seek effective ways to introduce such concepts, the application of learning objects (LOs) can potentially reduce the effort of creating new material from and allows teachers to adapt LOs to students' needs. Although numerous…

Research so far has overlooked the contribution of students' noncognitive factors to their performance in introductory programming in the context of personalized learning support. This study uses learning analytics to design and implement a Dashboard to understand the contribution of introductory programming students' learning motivation,…

Various similarity measures for source code have been proposed, many rely on edit- or tree-distance. To support a lecturer in quickly assessing live or online exercises with respect to "approaches taken by the students," we compare source code on a more abstract, semantic level. Even if novice student's solutions follow the same idea,…