Background and Context: Collaborative and cooperative learning is important to prepare students for their future work and to increase their learning performance in university courses. Several studies have shown promising results regarding team activities, such as pair programming. However, there is little information on how teamwork is currently…

Background and Context: Learning to create self-directed and personally authentic programming projects involves encountering challenges and learning to get unstuck. Objective: This article investigates how one U.S. fourth-grade classroom engaged in practices which emphasized community supports, in the context of the classroom's implementation and…

Background and Context: To better reflect the computational nature of STEM disciplines and deepen learning of science content computational thinking (CT) should be integrated in science curricula. Teachers have a critical role in supporting effective student learning with CT integrated curricula in classroom settings. Objective: Our team worked…

Background and Context: We explored how learning trajectories (LTs) might be used to design variables instruction. Objective: We aimed to develop an LT for variables and use it to guide curriculum development for fourth graders working in Scratch in an integrated mathematics+CS curriculum. Method: We synthesized learning goals (LGs) and levels of…

Background and Context: Current introductory instruction fails to identify, structure, and sequence the many skills involved in programming. Objective: We proposed a theory which identifies four distinct skills that novices learn incrementally. These skills are tracing, writing syntax, comprehending templates (reusable abstractions of programming…

Cognitive load theory (CLT) was used to redesign a Database Systems course for Information Technology students. The redesign was intended to address poor student performance and low satisfaction, and to provide a more relevant foundation in database design and use for subsequent studies and industry. The original course followed the conventional…

Object-oriented programming is seen as a difficult skill to master. There is considerable debate about the most appropriate way to introduce novice programmers to object-oriented concepts. Is it possible to uncover what the critical aspects or features are that enhance the learning of object-oriented programming? Practitioners have differing…

This paper reports on a qualitative study that examined how pair programming shapes the experience of secondary school girls taking IT as a subject, with respect to their enjoyment of programming and the subject itself. The study involved six Grade 11 girls who were doing solo programming in Grade 10 and pair programming in their following Grade.…

Programming education is a widely researched and intensely discussed topic. The literature proposes a broad variety of pedagogical viewpoints, practical approaches, learning theories, motivational vehicles, and other elements of the learning situation. However, little effort has been put on understanding cultural and contextual differences in…

This article describes a holistic approach to designing an introductory, object-oriented programming course. The design is grounded in constructivism and pedagogy of phenomenography. We use constructive alignment as the framework to align assessments, learning, and teaching with planned learning outcomes. We plan learning and teaching activities,…

Compared to other subjects, the typical introductory programming (CS1) course has higher than usual rates of both failing and high grades, creating a characteristic bimodal grade distribution. In this article, I explore two possible explanations. The conventional explanation has been that learners naturally fall into populations of programmers and…

This paper analyses the teaching and learning of computing in a Web-conferencing environment. A discourse analysis of three introductory programming learning episodes is presented to demonstrate issues and effects that arise when teaching computing using such an approach. The subject of discussion, the interactive nature of discussion and any…

This article presents a study that aims at constructing a teaching framework for software development methods in higher education. The research field is a capstone project-based course, offered by the Technion's Department of Computer Science, in which Extreme Programming is introduced. The research paradigm is an Action Research that involves…

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) method emphasizes students' own activity in learning about problems, setting up their own learning goals and actively searching for and analyzing information. In this paper, we describe and discuss our experiences on applying PBL, especially the seven steps method widely used in medical faculties, in an introductory…

A novel approach to improving instruction in an introductory computing course for freshmen non-computer-science majors is to couple it with a logic course as part of a Learning Community. Research has shown that effective Learning Communities can lead to higher academic achievement, better retention rates, diminished faculty isolation, and…