This talk will reflect on decades of empirical research on software design in high-performing teams and by experts. The talk will present three broad perspectives: It will identify some of the particular challenges of designing software and the ...

Pattern-oriented instruction (POI) is an instructional computer science (CS) approach that relies on algorithmic patterns (APs). Teaching through APs has been shown to help students acknowledge APs and incorporate them into their solutions, thus ...

Computer Science teaching and education research often struggles to explain a novice programmer's struggles. This dissertation creates a theoretical framework utilizing cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and learning theory to describe the mind of the ...

The research project aims to identify the cognitive processes underlying the Computational Thinking (CT) skills of primary school pupils. Moreover, it investigates which didactical strategies are most effective for implementing CT in the curriculum. A ...

Computing professional identity formation is critical for curriculum decision-making, workforce development, and retaining students in computing degree programs. However, we have limited knowledge of how computing professional identity develops. My ...

This PhD work aims to understand how Learning through Construction (LtC) affects the formation of IT identity in students. Thematic qualitative study with principles of constructivist Grounded Theory investigates what the students experience in the ...

Learning computer programming can be challenging for novices. Students have to deal with theoretical aspects of programming and problem solving in general, as well as mastering the syntax of a programming language. However, the feedback students receive ...

Ensuring that computer science students graduate and learn the desired curriculum is important in order to meet future demands. However, educational institutions have limited room for action as the number of students increases, without additional ...

If educators were to be skilled game designers, then they would be better equipped to design engaging education scenarios. This research engages in studying commercial design of engagement in games, so educators may be able to better facilitate engaging ...

My research involves investigating gamification and serious games in relation to secure programming. Current research has shown the effectiveness of serious games in other contexts, and I aim to discover what kinds of game or gameplay work most ...

Anyone can learn to code and build software these days. But the intricate and convoluted nature of computer security means that not anyone can write proper secure code. The goal of this research is to help average software developers build secure ...

This poster presents MATLAB Critiquer, a system that examines code submissions and provides feedback to first year engineering students who are learning to program in MATLAB. Code Critiquers act as substitute mentors, when instructors are not available, ...

This research study aims to identify design strategies, instructional models and technological tools (e.g., educational games) that can be used to motivate high school girls to pursue computer science (CS) education. Part of this study, an educational ...

Previous research in K-5 CS education has focused on improving students' engagement in programming using visual block-based environments like Scratch. However, little is known about how elementary school students' reason about programs. We define ...

This poster presents findings on a pedagogical approach we designed to enhance undergraduate computing students' understanding of functional programming (FP) through student-created video-tutorials. Students created two video tutorials. The first video-...

In this poster, we present some insights from student interaction data based on a year-long study on how to rethink the instructional model of a large CS1 (n=800) course. A key goal of the study was to address the increasing academic diversity in large ...

For the past four years, our research group has conducted a series of NSF funded studies on Computational Thinking (CT) involving elementary school students, parents, and teachers. We developed curriculum, trained teachers, observed classrooms, created ...

After the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the IEEE Computer Society endorsed the recently completed Information Technology Curricula 2017 Curriculum Guidelines (IT2017) for Baccalaureate Degree Programs in Information Technology (IT) [1], ...

Teaching students problem-solving skills is the biggest challenge for many computing programs. Students often do not consider what questions they need to ask while designing a solution. This paper introduces how technical writing techniques and problem-...

Many disciplines already embed reflective practice in their curriculum as it is important for the professional development of their students. Many frameworks have been developed to capture reflective practice, but there is a lack of knowledge about what ...