Computational Thinking has been described as an essential skill which everyone should learn and can therefore include in their skill set. Seymour Papert (Papert, 1980) is credited as concretising Computational Thinking in 1980 but Jeanette Wing (Wing, 2006) popularised the term in 2006 and brought it to the international community's attention.…

This paper aimed to empirically test whether implementing the blended teaching approach in ESP courses positively affects students' achievement and their attitudes towards it. To this end, explanatory type and quasi-experimental design research were carried out with two groups of students (N = 60) enrolled in the computer science department at…

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) education has been actively implemented around the world recently. ICT curriculum in schools is intended to improve students' programming-oriented thinking rather than to train them as programmers. The core of ICT education is 'computational thinking'. Computational thinking is taking an approach to…

The introductory programming course, commonly known as CS1 and offered as a core course in the first year in all engineering programs in India, is unique because it can address higher cognitive levels, metacognition and some aspects of the affective domain. It can provide much needed transformative experiences to students coming from a system of…

The computer science (CS) unplugged approach intends to teach CS concepts and computational thinking skills without employing any digital tools. The current study conducted a systematic literature review to analyze research studies that conducted investigations related to implementations of CS unplugged activities. A systematic review procedure…

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,…

Traditionally, statistical computing courses have taught the syntax of a particular programming language or specific statistical computation methods. Since Nolan and Temple Lang's seminal paper, we have seen a greater emphasis on data wrangling, reproducible research, and visualization. This shift better prepares students for careers working with…

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…

The purpose of this paper is to investigate students' engagement in computational thinking (CT) and programming with MATLAB when solving a mathematical task in a programming course at the undergraduate level. The data collection method is participant observation of three groups of three students presented with a mathematical task to solve. The…

Educators increasingly recognize the importance of disciplinary literacy for student success, beginning as early as the primary grades. This cutting-edge volume examines ways to help K-12 students develop the literacy skills and inquiry practices needed for high-level work in different academic domains. Chapters interweave research, theory, and…

The ability of automatically modeling learners' personalities is an important step in building adaptive learning environments. Several studies showed that knowing the personality of each learner can make the learning interaction with the provided learning contents and activities within learning systems more effective. However, the traditional…

SCRATCH, developed by the Media Lab at MIT, is a kid-friendly visual programming language, designed to introduce programming to children and teens in a "more thinkable, more meaningful, and more social" way. Although it was initially intended for K-12 students, educators have used it for higher education as well, and found it…

With the rapid adoption of internet-connected and driver-assist technologies, and the spread of semiautonomous to self-driving cars on roads worldwide, cybersecurity for smart cars is a timely concern and one worth exploring both in the classroom and in the real world. Highly publicized hacks against production cars, and a relatively small number…

This paper examines the effectiveness of programming in pairs in the Scratch environment in primary school. The motivation for tackling this issue is based on the successful use of Scratch as a learning environment for any students of programming. The analysis has shown that that programming in pairs produces better results for beginners in…

This paper presents general aspects of the development process for a technology education curriculum in Iceland University of Education during 2007-2008. The background to a research project in the field of using simulation learning tools and other new learning media as a supporting tool for learning and as an essential part of the new learning…