Background and Context: Differences in children's and adolescents' initial attitudes about computing and other STEM fields may form during middle school and shape decisions leading to career entry. Early emerging differences in career interest may propagate a lack of diversity in computer science and programming fields. Objective: Though middle…

Collaboration is an important aspect of computing. In a classroom setting, working with others can increase a student's motivation to attempt more challenges, reduce the difficulty of complicated concepts, and bring about greater overall success. Despite extensive research in other domains, there has been minimal exploration within computing on…

This study presents an inclusive K-12 AI curriculum for elementary schools, focusing on six design principles to address gender disparities. The curriculum, designed by the researchers and an elementary teacher, uses tangible tools, and emphasizes collaboration in solving daily problems. The MANOVA results revealed initial gender differences in AI…

While increasing emphasis has been placed on computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT) little is known about these topics in elementary classrooms. Significant equity gaps exist within CS/CT at the elementary level, with a major contributor being the lack of highly qualified CS/CT elementary teachers. Professional development (PD) for…

Background: Computational thinking is derived from arguments that the underlying practices in computer science augment problem-solving. Most studies investigated computational thinking development as a function of learners' factors, instructional strategies and learning environment. However, the influence of the wider community such as educational…

Educational escape rooms aims to motivate students, to strengthen knowledge and evaluate learning. Pre-service teachers enrolled in "Computer Science and Digital Competency" course shows lack of motivation and difficulties to realise its usefulness in everyday practice, becoming an ideal context to apply this strategy. 157 students…

Knowing the factors affecting fear of large carnivores is important for wildlife management and conservation. In this regard, the effect of worldviews of human-wildlife and human-nature relationships on the fear of large carnivores needs to be investigated in different cultures. In this study, the influence of wildlife value orientations (WVOs),…

Researchers and educators are concerned about student success in tertiary programming courses, a situation that is even more pronounced in open and distance e-learning institutions. The aim of this study was to integrate 60 video lessons and compare passing and failing student in terms of their performance in JavaScript with three broad online…

This study consists of a 17-year (2006-2021) systematic literature review on the effective instructional strategies for developing Computational Thinking (CT) in primary school students (K-5). The aim of this paper is to identify instructional strategies that have been implemented and evaluated by means of a pre- and post-test, with the aim of…

Despite a growing national focus on computer science (CS) education, students with disabilities are often excluded from or not able to access high quality CS experiences and coursework. One reason for this is a lack of teachers who support students with disabilities and also hold CS knowledge and skills. Integrating CS into preservice teacher…

The use of AI tools, particularly ChatGPT, has been widespread in recent years. Its application in education has been criticized by some and supported by others. In this article we present the case of a work carried out as part of a course unit in a computer science degree program in which the use of ChatGPT was not only encouraged but required.…

A majority of research in Computational Thinking (CT) mainly focuses on teaching coding to school students. However, CT involves more than just coding and includes other skills like algorithmic thinking. The current study developed an Online Inquiry-based Learning Platform for Computational Thinking (CT-ONLINQ) that follows Inquiry-Based Learning…

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has made a significant impact on technological progress and has been integrated into various sectors and organizations. As a result, developing a workforce with knowledge and expertise in AI has become necessary. Skilled AI professionals will play a critical role in driving economic growth and…

In this paper, to handle the problem of the quick evolution of cyber-security attacks, we developed the iMonsters board game and proposed the attack and defense knowledge self-evolving algorithm. Three versions of the iMonsters were launched in 2013, 2017, and 2019, respectively. Accordingly, the cyber-security ontology can be refined by the…

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Computer Science and STEM-related fields were among the most resistant to online courses. This is because of a perception of the need for more hands-on instruction with labs, clinicals, field studies, etc. Additionally, many STEM students had perceptions based on limited experience of an online STEM course.…