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Reviewer: Ann E. Fleury

A book on computer science (CS) education research has been long overdue, but this one was worth waiting for. The cover illustration of this unique book shows Pandora's box. Inside the book are careful descriptions of the numerous tools and theories of computer science education research. Also inside the book are surveys of computer science education research that expose numerous subtleties about computer science education. Hopefully, none of this will ever be locked away again. However, computer science education research is not, and never will be, straightforward. "In CS education research, fallible, variable humans are both the subjects and the instruments of research, providing multiple opportunities for error and distortion" (page 66). Therein lies its fascination and its challenge. Computer science education is currently "theory-scarce" (page 3). This book displays what theory there is, some of it from education and psychology, and some of it from technical fields. In Part 1, the editors provide an overview of the process of carrying out educational research in computer science. In Part 2, six experts from different areas of computer science education research provide overviews of their areas, approached from their differing research vantage points. After two introductory chapters, each remaining chapter of Part 1 is based on a different guiding principle for research. Chapter 3 provides advice on posing significant and insightful questions, the investigation of which will add to knowledge. Chapter 4 describes the linking of research to theory. Chapter 5 discusses providing a coherent and explicit chain of reasoning. Chapter 6 provides guidelines for choosing research methods that are appropriate to the research question. Chapter 7 describes ways to make research findings valid. Finally, chapter 8 reminds us of the importance of reading purposefully, of giving credit, and of carefully and completely reporting our work. Part 2 begins with Michael Clancy providing a summary of research into the misconceptions and attitudes that interfere with learning to program. He ends by pointing out some of the areas where explanations of student (mis)understandings would still be useful. Tony Clear discusses the critical inquiry paradigm in computer science education research. This research emphasizes its benefit to mankind, thus allowing a different set of research questions to be asked, and a different set of insights to be gained. Mark Guzdial surveys research on programming environments for novices, from LOGO to ToonTalk. He defines progress in terms of making programming more interesting and relevant for students. W. Michael McCracken outlines the methods of cognitive science, and their use for understanding software design. Using schema theory, Robert Rist contrasts novice and expert problem solving behavior when designing programs. John Stasko and Christopher Hundhausen present a review of the design and evaluation of algorithm visualization systems. While many of the hints on computer science education research appearing in this book are well known to computer science education researchers, never have so many appeared in one place. While many of the papers summarized and cited are familiar to computer science education researchers, never have so many been collected in one book. If you are interested in the results of computer science education research, I would advise you to browse Part 2 of this very readable book. If you are interested in doing computer science education research, I would strongly recommend that you study this book, and the papers that it references. The book provides a useful summary for the current generation of computer science education researchers. It will prove to be a very valuable starting point for the next generation. I only wish it had been available when I was in graduate school.

Reviewer: John W. Fendrich

This is an exposition and delineation of computer science (CS) education research. Part 1, "The Field and the Endeavor," frames the nature and conduct of research in CS education. Part 2, "Perspectives and Approaches," consists of grounded chapters on particular topics and themes, written by experts in each domain. Both parts are entry points to a not-completely-understood territory. Part 1 identifies two dimensions of researchers' and writers' work in established fields of scholarship and research, particularly in education, psychology, computer science, technology, and engineering. One dimension is rationale, argumentation, or "theory." The other is empirical evidence. Existing papers are located in four quadrants in a diagram. The four quadrants are: "Perspective Pieces" (low in evidence, high in argument or theory), "Practice Papers" (low in argument or theory, high in experimental evidence), an unnamed quadrant in which nothing should exist (low in evidence, low in theory), and "CS Education Research" (high in argument and theory, high in experiential evidence). The book says the last is theory-scarce in existing scholarly papers. It proposes that computer science education scholars fill this void, making this quadrant rich. Ten broad areas of motivation are identified: student understanding, animation/visualization/simulation systems, teaching methods, assessment, educational technology, transfer of professional practice to the classroom, the incorporation of new developments and technologies into the classroom, transferring to remote teaching (e-learning), recruitment and retention of students, and construction of the CS education research discipline. Part 1 develops the domains and principles of CS education research in eight chapters. It proposes six guiding principles, originally published in the Shavelson and Towne book [1], as a framework for CS education research. The six principles are: pose significant questions that can be answered empirically, link research to relevant theory, use methods that permit direct investigation of the question, provide a coherent and explicit chain of reasoning, replicate and generalize across studies, and disclose research to encourage professional scrutiny and critique. These principles are guided by the current method of science as an alternative to the scientific method of earlier times. The part includes its own list of references and notes. Part 2 is constructed as a short introduction plus six chapters, each of more than 20 pages, meant to "zoom-in" on CS education research through a detailed exploration of representative topics and literature in the areas of CS education research from Part 1. (It is left to the reader to identify the significant questions that motivate the work reported in each chapter.) The introduction to Part 2 provides a brief placement of the accounts in the chapters of Part 2 into the context of the espoused six principles of CS education research. The chapter titled "Research on Learning to Design Software" is illustrative of the chapters in Part 2. The motivating areas here are: student understanding, teaching methods, assessment, transfer of professional practice into the classroom, the incorporation of new development and technologies into the classroom, and the construction of the software design education research discipline itself. Research in software design education is very sparse. The emphasis in what research there is is to generate cognitive models or explanations of design knowledge and skill, sometimes comparing expert and novice design behavior, with little knowledge of the development of skills and knowledge that allow a novice to move toward being an expert. The situation is similar in other design fields, so there is little to draw on there. The field of software design research is open to gaining knowledge of design learning, and applying that knowledge in the classroom. One wonders if the field of CS education research will provide individuals of the caliber of, for example, Polya in mathematics, who taught mathematical problem solving through innumerable presentations and publications. Online Computing Reviews Service