Research in Computer Science Education

Abstract

This chapter focuses on research in computer science education. The importance of including this topic in the MTCS course stems from the fact that computer science education research can enrich the prospective computer science teachers’ perspective with respect to the discipline of computer science, the computer science teacher’s role, and students’ difficulties, misconceptions, and cognitive abilities. Consequently, this knowledge may enhance the future work of the prospective computer science teachers in several ways, such as lesson preparation, kind of activities developed for learners, awareness to learners’ difficulties, ways to improve concept understanding, and testing and grading learners’ projects and tests. We first explain the importance of exposing the students to the knowledge gained by the computer science education research community. Then, we demonstrate different issues addressed in such research works and suggest activities to facilitate with respect to this topic.