Many education systems have recognized the importance of computational thinking and coding skills and are implementing curricular changes to introduce coding into formal school education. A necessary and critical success factor involves the preparation of and support for teachers to teach coding. Thus, understanding the perceptions of teachers…

In the recent years, there has been a push to engage primary and secondary students in computer science to prepare them to live and work in a world influenced by computation. One of the efforts involves getting primary and secondary students to think computationally by introducing computational ideas such as, algorithms and abstraction. Majority…

Background: Recent developments in STEM and computer science education put a strong emphasis on twenty-first-century skills, such as solving authentic problems. These skills typically transcend single disciplines. Thus, problem-solving must be seen as a multidisciplinary challenge, and the corresponding practices and processes need to be described…

This paper expands on knowledge of computing identity by building on what is known about prior identity models in science and mathematics education. The model theorizes three primary sub-constructs that contribute to the development of a computing identity: belief in one's performance/competence, interest, and recognition in computing. Drawing on…

A complex web of factors can influence whether students participate in computer science (CS) during high school. In order to increase participation in CS for all students, there is a need to better understand who is currently participating and what factors might be hindering participation. This study utilized a large-scale, student-level dataset…

America's higher education institutions have aligned computer science curricula with today's modern technology. Despite these efforts, data have shown that there is slow growth among young women majoring in computer science and even slower growth in this area at community colleges. Higher education institutions have also acknowledged a gap between…

An instructional focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) is a current popular educational due to the widespread need for skilled workers in these growing fields. Compounding this labor shortage is the fact that female students and workers are underrepresented in STEM subjects. The purpose of this study was to examine the…

Software security is inevitably dependent on developers' ability to to design and implement software without security bugs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, developers often fail to do this. Our goal is to understand this from a usability perspective, identifying how we might best train developers and equip them with the right software tools. To this end,…

In Hungary, K-12 informatics/computer science education focuses on mostly surface-based methods. This approach can be observed in the teaching of several topics in the subject, of which we focus on spreadsheet management. This is further emphasized by regulatory documents -- the Hungarian National Core Curriculum and Hungarian Curriculum…

Contribution: This study applies supervised and unsupervised machine learning (ML) techniques to discover which significant attributes that a successful learner often demonstrated in a computer course. Background: Students often experienced difficulties in learning an introduction to computers course. This research attempts to investigate how…

Social learning theory posits that learning is most effective when providing learners with opportunities to observe and interact with peers. Unfortunately, current K-12 programming education overemphasizes individual learning and discourages learners from observing and interacting with others. The Scratch online community provides youth…

Contribution: Research has shown that computer science (CS) students who start programming assignments (PAs) early generally receive higher grades. This article presents and evaluates a gamification approach that utilizes software engineering tools to motivate CS students to start and finish PAs earlier. Background: CS can be difficult to learn…

This paper describes an introductory biology course for undergraduates that heavily incorporates quantitative problem solving in activities and homework assignments. The course is broken up into a series of units, each organized around a motivating biological question or theme. Homework assignments address the theme or question, and typically…

The University of Naples Federico II (Italy) offers a nine-month formative training program aimed at software development for the Apple technology ecosystem to ~400 learners per year and utilises the Challenge Based Learning ("CBL") methodology as a framework for learning. As a collaborative and self-guided, inquiry-based learning…

Block-based programming languages (BBLs) have been proposed as a way to prepare students for learning to program in more sophisticated, text-based languages, such as Java. Hybrid BBLs add the ability to view and edit the block commands in auto-generated, text-based code. We compared the use of a non-hybrid BBL (Scratch), a hybrid BBL (Pencil…