Computing Education Research Research Articles

Identifying critical self-regulated learning skills: a Delphi process study

ABSTRACT Background and Context Self-regulated learning (SRL) skills are critical aspect of learning to program and are predictive of academic success. Early college students often struggle to use these skills, but can improve when given targeted instruction. However, it is not yet clear what skills are best to prioritize. Objective We seek to create a shortlist of SRL skills that help computer science students with an ultimate goal of giving future researchers and educators a set of promising targets for future study. Method This work details a three-phase Delphi-Process study wherein a panel educators to reach consensus on SRL skills needed for success in CS. Findings We identified fourteen skills broadly categorized into five areas: Planning, Executing, Monitoring, Responding, and Reflecting. There are several factors to indicate these skills are all highly valuable areas for future work. Implications We highlight Knowing When to Seek Help especially for future research within the Computing Education Research community.

Koli Calling 2024: Call for Participation

We warmly invite you to attend the 24th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli Calling 2024), to be held 14-17 November 2024 in the beautiful Koli National Forest in Eastern Finland. While the submission deadline for full papers and discussion papers has passed, you can still submit posters and demo papers by 20 September 2024.

ICER 2024: Call for Participation

Do you know that the 20th ICER Conference will be happening soon? In Australia? The ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER) will be held at Storey Hall in RMIT University right in the centre of Melbourne.

Contextualization, Authenticity, and the Problem Description Effect

In recent years, computing education researchers have investigated the impact of problem context on students’ learning and programming performance. This work continues the investigation motivated, in part, by cognitive load theory and educational research in computer science and other disciplines. The results of this study could help inform computing assessment design. If the context and authenticity of a programming problem aid student performance then, instructors’ time in creating appropriately contextualized programming problem descriptions is time well-spent. On the other hand, if the context of a programming problem hinders performance, then instructors should leave it out of programming problems. Recent studies investigating the impact of programming problem context on student success have arrived at different conclusions. Presented here is a series of experiments, conducted over 3 years, investigating the impact of context on novice programmers’ success in algorithmic programming assignments using three contextualized tasks and their generic counterparts. This experiment series also looked into the possibility of “authenticity” as a factor affecting performance. Common sense would suggest that a student would perform better on a problem if they understood or cared about it. Contextualization could provide authenticity and authenticity could provide interest. Research suggests that perceiving a problem as authentic has a positive effect on engagement and learning. Alternatively, if a problem is “just an abstract set of numbers”, it may be harder to make sense of the details and the lack of context could consequently contribute additional cognitive load to an already challenging assignment. The results of this study show that assignment context and problem context authenticity have no effect on the performance of novice programmers. We think, however, that contextualization could be worth investing in to support students’ interest in computing. Additional implications of the results suggest that instructors can assign equivalent versions of the same problem in varied contexts to suit their students’ interests without worrying if the context will hinder performance.

Teaching Ethics in Computing: A Systematic Literature Review of ACM Computer Science Education Publications

The computing education research community now has at least 40 years of published research on teaching ethics in higher education. To examine the state of our field, we present a systematic literature review of papers in the Association for Computing Machinery computing education venues that describe teaching ethics in higher-education computing courses. Our review spans all papers published to SIGCSE, ICER, ITiCSE, CompEd, Koli Calling, and TOCE venues through 2022, with 100 papers fulfilling our inclusion criteria. Overall, we found a wide variety in content, teaching strategies, challenges, and recommendations. The majority of the papers did not articulate a conception of “ethics,” and those that did used many different conceptions, from broadly applicable ethical theories to social impact to specific computing application areas (e.g., data privacy and hacking). Instructors used many different pedagogical strategies (e.g., discussions, lectures, assignments) and formats (e.g., stand-alone courses, incorporated within a technical course). Many papers identified measuring student knowledge as a particular challenge, and 59% of papers included mention of assessments or grading. Of the 69% of papers that evaluated their ethics instruction, most used student self-report surveys, course evaluations, and instructor reflections. While many papers included calls for more ethics content in computing, specific recommendations were rarely broadly applicable, preventing a synthesis of guidelines. To continue building on the last 40 years of research and move toward a set of best practices for teaching ethics in computing, our community should delineate our varied conceptions of ethics, examine which teaching strategies are best suited for each, and explore how to measure student learning.

What do we know about Computing Education in Africa? A Systematic Review of Computing Education Research Literature

What do we know about Computing Education in Africa? A Systematic Review of Computing Education Research Literature

What Do We Know About Computing Education in Africa? A Systematic Review of Computing Education Research Literature

What Do We Know About Computing Education in Africa? A Systematic Review of Computing Education Research Literature

We Need to Fix Secondary School Computer Science

In recent years, the push for secondary school students to “learn to code” has increased significantly. Currently, about half of secondary schools in the United States have computer science education available to students in some form. Unfortunately, many of these schools choose a curriculum bogged down in the nuances of programming language syntax, leaving students bored, confused, unable to apply their learning to useful problems outside the classroom, and therefore disheartened about further pursuing a more conceptual computer science education in college. As a current undergraduate who has helped teach secondary school computer science, I witnessed firsthand the problems with current approaches. I, therefore, propose a shift in the focus of computing education research away from teaching “coding” effectively to elucidating a more abstract but nevertheless more pragmatic characterization of computer science as an academic field, rather than programming as a trade.

Koli Calling 2023 Invitation

We once more warmly invite you to attend the 23rd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli Calling 2023), to be held both online, 13-14 November 2023 and in Koli, Finland, 16-19 November 2023 in the beautiful Koli National Forest in Eastern Finland.

Identity in Higher Computer Education Research: A Systematic Literature Review

The disciplinary identity as a computer science student has recently received increasing attention as a well-developed subject identity can help with increasing retention, interest, and motivation. Besides, identity theory can serve as an analytical lens for issues around diversity. However, identity is also often perceived as a vague, overused concept with a variety of theories to build upon. In addition, connections to other topics, such as computer science conceptions, remain unclear and there seems to be little intra-disciplinary exchange about the concept. This article, therefore, attempts to provide a starting point by presenting a so far missing systematic literature review of identity in Computing Education Research (CER). We analyzed a corpus of 41 articles published since 2005 with a focus on the variety of identity theories that are used, the reasons for using them, and the overall theoretical framing of the concept in the CER literature up to this point. We use content analysis with both inductive and deductive coding to derive categories from the corpus to answer our research questions. The results show that there is less variety in the theories than originally expected, most publications refer to the theory of “Communities of Practice”. The reasons for employing identity theory are also rather canonical, in particular, there is only little theoretical development of the theories within CER and also only little empirical work. Finally, we also present an extended version of a computing identity that can be theoretically derived from the work in our corpus.

Prospective mathematics teachers’ TPACK development in graphical data displays: a microteaching lesson study

This case study investigated the development of prospective mathematics teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) in graphical data displays with (VM) within the context of a microteaching lesson study (MLS). This research investigated how five participants integrated technology and implemented a lesson plan aimed to teach statistical data displays. The MLS cycled through the phases of lesson plan design, discussion, implementation, and revision. Fundamental data was gathered through group discussions of which were operated through the lesson plans and video recordings of lesson implementation. The TPACK codebook (Hughes. 2013. Descriptive indicators of future teachers’ technology integration in the PK-12 classroom: Trends from a laptop-infused teacher education program. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 48(4), 491–516) was utilised to conduct a thorough analysis of the transcribed data through collaborative group discussions. The findings indicate that the MLS led to some improvements in the TPACK of the participants. In particular, participants developed a stronger knowledge of statistical content, pedagogical content, and technological content pertaining to data displays.

Improving Computing Education Research through Valuing Design

Exploring alternatives to existing research systems and methods.

How multi-modal approaches support engineering and computing education research

ABSTRACT Multi-modal approaches in engineering and computing education are still in its early stages. With the advent of new technologies and communication platforms, understanding the principles and elements of multi-modal work will help scholars to answer complex research questions related to engineering and computing education. Multi-modal approaches consist of research principles and practices that aim to explore the multi-sensory ways humans experience the complexity and multiplicity of their surrounding world as it happens. This manuscript will elaborate on the principles of multi-modal research, highlight examples in the engineering and computing education literature, and share considerations and strategies. The manuscript’s purpose is to guide scholars who wish to capture participant experiences of phenomena naturalistically and authentically, and in near-real-time..

Koli Calling 2023 Invitation

We warmly invite you to attend the 23rd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli Calling 2023), to be held both online, 13-14 November 2023 and in Koli, Finland, 16-19 November 2023 in the beautiful Koli National Forest in Eastern Finland.

Classifying the Characteristics of Effective Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for Computer Science Teachers in the 16-18 Sector

As technology and curricula continue to evolve and develop, the prevalence and effectiveness of continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities for computer science teachers is becoming increasingly more important. However, key questions remain about what the characteristics are for effective CPD in this context. Through the presentation of existing literature and the qualitative analysis of interviews with 32 employees from 13 English colleges (n = 14 computer science lecturers, 10 course leaders, and 8 members of senior leadership) this article answers the following question: ‘What are the characteristics of effective continuing professional development for computer science teachers in the 16-18 sector?’ Existing literature indicates how CPD benefits from: (1) knowledge development and application to classroom teaching, (2) self-efficacy development and measurement, (3) observation, feedback and reflection, (4) collaboration and communities of practice, (5) sufficient time, and (6) institution support. Meanwhile, the thematic analysis of interview data led to the creation of five overarching themes: (1) computer science CPD should address various knowledge domains, (2) CPD requires institutional support, (3) CPD should be engaging, (4) computer science CPD should involve a combination of activities, and (5) CPD should be measurable. This qualitative article also presents interview excerpts and contributes to computing education research and practice by presenting a set of thirty guidelines which outlines the characteristics of effective CPD in the context of computer science teachers in the 16-18 sector. These guidelines could be beneficial for both CPD providers and educators in ensuring CPD opportunities are designed more effectively, and with an understanding of both parties’ needs.

Factors for enabling effective student learning within English colleges: the case of computing

ABSTRACT The development of computing as a subject area and the skills gaps present in society has placed an increased emphasis on the teaching of computing and what practices enable effective student learning. Within England, colleges have been described as pivotal in addressing these skills gaps, but there is a lack of computing education research within a college setting. This paper therefore aims to answer the following research question: How are computing educators within English colleges enabling effective student learning for computing? Through conducting 24 semi-structured interviews with computing educators from 13 English colleges, six themes were identified which include having staff who care, building a positive relationship with students, developing student soft skills, challenging current practice, putting an emphasis on students, and other teaching tips. This paper augments findings of good practice that have been found in other educational settings such as the use of unplugged activities, flipped learning, and pair programming, but in the unique context of teaching computing within English colleges. Furthermore, this paper more explicitly contributes to knowledge and practice through detailing how a focus on student needs is deemed more important for enabling effective student learning for computing than the choice of curriculum or available resources.

Koli Calling 2023 Call for Papers

We invite you to submit a paper or poster for the 23rd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli Calling 2023) to be hosted both online, 13-14 November 2023 and in Koli, Finland, 16-19 November 2023.

Editorial for the Second Special Issue on “Conceptualizing and Using Theory in Computing Education Research”

In this editorial, we introduce the second set of papers for the special issue “Conceptualizing and Using Theory in CER”. These papers focus on meta level discussion on theories in CER, addressing the definition of theories, what theoretical contributions have been developed for CER, how theories have been used, and what other type of contributions there are in the field. The issue also includes guest editors’ own reflections on theory.

Report on the First International Workshop on Data Systems Education (DataEd '22)

This report summarizes the outcomes of the first international workshop on Data Systems Education: Bridging Education Practice with Education Research (DataEd '22). The workshop was held in conjunction with the SIGMOD '22 conference in Philadelphia, USA on June 17, 2022. The aim of the workshop was to provide a dedicated venue for presenting and and discussing data management systems education experiences and research by bringing together the database and the computing education research communities to share findings, to crosspollinate perspectives and methods, and to shed light on opportunities for mutual progress in data systems education. The program featured two keynote talks, ten research paper presentations, a discussion session, and an industry panel discussion. In this report, we present the workshop's main results, observations, and emerging research directions.

Koli Calling Conference Report

Koli Calling is a single-track conference covering a range of topics related to education in the computing disciplines. The 22nd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research was held in the beautiful Koli National Park from November 17-20, 2022. The conference was held in cooperation with the ACM and SIGCSE and was organized by the University of Eastern Finland and the University of Toronto Mississauga.