A census of Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC)-accredited journalism programs reveals that less than a quarter require students to learn code. Despite industry desires for journalists with coding skills, nearly 40% of the units offer no coding classes. Among programs that require code, most rely on a…

Several instructional approaches have been advanced for learning programming. However, effective ways of engaging beginners in programming in K-12 are still unclear, especially among low socioeconomic status learners in technology-deprived learning environments. Understanding the learning path of novice programmers will bridge this gap and explain…

Background: Feedback as one of the most influential factors for learning has been subject to a great body of research. It plays a key role in the development of educational technology systems and is traditionally rooted in deterministic feedback defined by experts and their experience. However, with the rise of generative AI and especially large…

Research on geometric transformations suggests that early learners possess intuitive understandings grounded in motion metaphors, transitioning to mappings. The processes through which students transition between these two conceptions are not fully understood. We propose that Vygotskian hybridizing (related to Vygotsky's articulation of everyday…

Background: The demand for engineers in the workforce continues to rise, which requires increased retention and degree completion at the undergraduate level. Engineering educators need to better understand opportunities to retain students in engineering majors. A strong sense of belonging in engineering represents one important contributor to…

This short paper presents an educational approach to teaching three popular methods for encoding DNA sequences: one-hot encoding, binary encoding, and integer encoding. Aimed at bioinformatics and computational biology students, our learning intervention focuses on developing practical skills in implementing these essential techniques for…

This study aims to examine the views of fourth-grade primary school students on coding education given through the Scratch program by determining the students' skills in using the program and algorithmic thinking skills. The study was conducted as a one-group study with an embedded mixed design. The study group consisted of 32 students attending…

The reasons for teaching programming in school are indeed manifold. Programming can for example be utilized as a vehicle for understanding and learning particular mathematical subject matter, or as a tool for solving mathematical problems. In this paper, however, we propose to utilize programming as a vehicle for developing mathematical…

Constructionism, long before it had a name, was intimately tied to the field of Artificial Intelligence. Soon after the birth of Logo at BBN, Seymour Papert set up the Logo Group as part of the MIT AI Lab. Logo was based upon Lisp, the first prominent AI programming language. Many early Logo activities involved natural language processing,…

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…

The integration of visual programming in early formal education has been found to promote computational thinking of students. Teachers' intuitive perspectives about optimal learning processes -- "folk psychology" -- impact their perspectives about teaching "folk pedagogy" and play a significant role in integrating educational…

Background Study: As interest in programming education continues to grow, more educators are incorporating programming into K-12 classrooms. There is evidence that programming can help develop essential skills for future societal advancement, known as 21st century skills. However, there has been limited research into which sub-skills of 21st…

Teaching robotics with the robot operating system (ROS) is valuable for instating good programming practices but requires significant setup steps from the learner. Providing a ready-made ROS learning environment over the web can make robotics more accessible; however, most of the previous remote labs have abstracted the authentic ROS developer…

Schools have transitioned from single-component health and wellness programs to comprehensive initiatives aimed at fostering continual and sustained improvement in children's overall health and wellness. These interventions, with a focus on knowledge and behavior change, can effectively promote the adoption of healthy behaviors among children.…

Introductory computer programming (i.e. CS1) is the entry point into the computer science major at higher education institutions worldwide. It introduces foundational concepts to students that are then built upon in future courses. Computer science as a whole has struggled to attract and retain students in the major, particularly women and…