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While there has been a remarkable interest to make computer science a core K-12 academic subject in the United States, there is a shortage of K-12 computer science teachers to successfully implement computer sciences courses in schools. In order to enhance computer science teacher capacity, training programs have been offered through teacher professional development. In this study, the main goal was to systematically review the studies regarding computer science professional development to understand the scope, context, and effectiveness of these programs in the past decade (2004-2014). Based on 21 journal articles and conference proceedings, this study explored: (1) Type of professional development organization and source of funding, (2) professional development structure and participants, (3) goal of professional development and type of evaluation used, (4) specific computer science concepts and training tools used, (5) and their effectiveness to improve teacher practice and student learning.

Background and Context: Since the surge of grounded cognition (GC) theories in cognitive psychology, many studies have focused on demonstrating the importance of embodiment and sensorimotor activities on students' conceptual development. In computing education, however, there is not yet a conceptual framework for developing age-appropriate. Objective: This paper brings these sets of work together, showing how the wider grounded cognition literature can be of value to computing education. The main objective of the paper is to suggest and set the theoretical foundations of a model for conceptual development in the early years of computing education. Method: The paper is a conceptual paper and thus, it is based on an extensive account of relevant cognitive psychology and education literature. Findings: The paper presents a model for conceptual development (EIFFEL -Enacted Instrumented Formal Framework for Early Learning in Computing). The general premise underlying the model is that programming concepts are first realised as actions performed on objects; as such, it aims to describe children's conceptual development in computing from their first actions on concrete objects to entirely abstract forms of action representation epitomised by a program. Implications: The model constitutes the first attempt to theorise conceptual development in the early years of computing education; as such it is expected to be used for the design of learning trajectories that progressively advance children's conceptualisations from concrete, situated and multi-modal to formal and more abstract representations.

Background and Context: Hour of Code is one of the largest educational campaigns implemented. It exposes millions of learners, to an hour of computer science fundamentals. With such a large impact, a large number of research articles have been published on the topic. This research ranges from reports of experiments testing the efficacy of Hour of Code and analysis of learner behavior, to reports of participation and suggestions for facilitating. Objective: The goal of this work is to determine the effects of Hour of Code on Computer Science education. Method: Articles in IEEE Xplore, ACM, EBSCO, ERIC, and Google Scholar that include "Hour of Code" were identified. Papers with "Hour of Code" as an emphasis of the research design or exploratory effort were analyzed. Findings: Systematic review identified 64 papers which were sorted into six categories. Papers focused on overall participation numbers to novel Hour of Code Activities and research using Hour of Code data. Implications: Analysis of these articles provides detail into the impact of Hour of Code on participants and influences resources for researchers. However, many questions remain to understand how Hour of Code can improve to meet its goals, expanding access to computer science to all students.

Background and Context: Overlaying Computer Science (CS) courses on top of inequitable schooling systems will not move us toward "CS for All." This paper prioritizes the perspectives of minoritized students enrolled in high school CS classrooms across a large, urban school district in the Western United States, to help inform how CS can truly be for all. Objective: This paper explores what student agency looks like while answering the research question "From the perspective of minoritized students historically underrepresented in computing, what makes a critical difference in their sense of agency in introductory CS high school classes?" Method: Our research-practice partnership used qualitative data (including classroom observations, interviews, student artifacts, and video/photos) and surveys to surface the perspectives and visions of minoritized youth. Findings: The research describes what student agency looks like as youth -- who have had no prior CS learning experiences -- use CS as a tool to resist marginalization and dehumanizing school contexts, while declaring their own "rightful presence" in CS classrooms. Implications: Findings demonstrate the importance for CS curricula and pedagogy to center the lives of students in ways that are consequential for minoritized youth. This would support deeper engagement with content learning and student agency with computing.

Background and context: The variables that researchers measure and how they measure them are central in any area of research, including computing education. Which research questions can be asked and how they are answered depends on measurement. Objective: To summarize the commonly used variables and measurements in computing education and to compare them to best practices in measurement for human-subjects research. Method: Systematic literature review analyzing 197 papers published during 2013-2017 in computing education research venues. Findings: The review illuminates common practices related to: variables measured (including learner characteristics), measurements used, and type of data analysis. The paper lists standardized measurements that were used and highlights commonly used variables for which no standardized measures exist. Implications: The paper concludes with information about best practices currently being used in the community that should be continued, as well as pointing out practices that could be improved along with recommendations for how to begin to adopt those best practices.

Background and Context: Encouraging undergraduate programming students to think more about their software development processes is challenging. Most programming courses focus on coding skill development and mastering programming language features; subsequently software development processes (e.g. planning, code commenting, and error debugging) are undervalued. Moreover, many of these processes involve tacit thinking that is often seemingly invisible, meaning it can be difficult for teachers to identify and address shortcomings in student processes. Objective: In this paper, we employ a novel approach called Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) to encourage students to think more about their software development processes. Method: We conducted IPR sessions with five undergraduate programming students--we screen captured them working on programming assignments, and then used the screen captures to stimulate reflection. IPR is hallmarked by several key features, namely its developmental (rather than evaluative) focus, and the use of a facilitator to guide reflection in a structured way. Findings: We found IPR was useful for both the teaching staff and the students, revealing incongruence between the value students placed on certain development processes and what they actually do in practice. Implications: IPR is a novel approach for shining a light on student software development processes. We hope this paper encourages other practitioners to consider adding IPR to their toolbox of approaches for encouraging students to reflect on their software development processes.

Background and Context: Assessing team members' indivdiual contributions to software development projects poses a key problem for computing instructors. While instructors typically rely on subjective assessments, objective assessments could provide a more robust picture. To explore this possibility, In a 2020 paper, Buffardi presented a correlational analysis of objective metrics and subjective metrics in an advanced software engineering project course (n= 41 students and 10 teams), finding only two significant correlations. Objective: To explore the robustness of Buffardi's findings and gain further insight, we conducted a larger scale replication of the Buffardi study (n = 118 students and 25 teams) in three courses at three institutions. Method: We collected the same data as in the Buffardi study and computed the same measures from those data. We replicated Buffardi's exploratory, correlational and regression analyses of objective and subjective measures. Findings: While replicating four of Buffardi's five significant correlational findings and partially replicating the findings of Buffardi's regression analyses, our results go beyond those of Buffardi by identifying eight additional significant correlations. Implications: In contrast to Buffardi's study, our larger scale study suggests that subjective and objective measures of individual performance in team software development projects can be fruitfully combined to provide consistent and complementary assessments of individual performance.

This theoretical paper explores the need for enhanced, intersectional computing identity theory for the purpose of developing a diverse group of computer scientists for the future. Greater theoretical understanding of the identity formation process specifically for computing is needed in order to understand how students come to understand themselves as computer scientists. To ensure that the next generation of computer scientists is diverse, this paper presents a case for examining identity development intersectionally, understanding the ways in which women and underrepresented students may have difficulty identifying as computer scientists and be systematically oppressed in their pursuit of computer science careers. Through a review of the available scholarship, this paper suggests that creating greater theoretical understanding of the computing identity development process will inform the way in which educational stakeholders consider computer science practices and policies.

This paper describes and evaluates aspects of a professional development programme for existing CS teachers in secondary schools (PLAN C) which was designed to support teachers at a time of substantial curricular change. The paper's particular focus is on the formation of a teacher professional development network across several hundred teachers and a wide geographical area. Evidence from a series of observations and teacher surveys over a two-year period is analysed with respect to the project's programme theory in order to illustrate not only "whether" it worked as intended, by "why". Results indicate that the PLAN C design has been successful in increasing teachers' professional confidence and appears to have catalysed powerful change in attitudes to learning. Presentation of challenging pedagogical content knowledge and conceptual frameworks, high-quality teacher-led professional dialogue, along with the space for reflection and classroom trials, triggered examination of the teachers' own current practices.

Background and Context: Though computer science education is marked by a pronounced racial participation gap, there is little research about effective ways that teachers can be supported in creating racially-just and equitable computer science learning opportunities for students. Objectives: This paper examines how teachers engage in learning about race and equity in computer science education during professional development. Method: Drawing from data collected from 94 participants attending a summer week-long Exploring Computer Science workshop, this mixed-methods study revealed how key curricular and instructional features of professional development foster race-conscious discussions and shifts in beliefs and agency around broadening participation in computing. Findings: Given the importance of developing teacher capacity to increase opportunities for students of color in computing classrooms, the findings of this study highlight how intentionally integrating race education in the center of professional development for teachers can support teachers' equity-based beliefs and practices. Implications: Professional development for teachers that seeks to broaden participation in computing is supported by long-term professional learning that explicitly center issues of race and equity in the curriculum.

Background and Context: Educators make consequential curricular decisions, often with little support, particularly as it relates to equity and how to support all students. Objective: This paper investigates the use of a rubric to support educators evaluating computer science curricula, especially with regards to equity. Method: Seventeen in-service elementary teachers evaluated a computer science curriculum with and without the Teacher Accessibility, Equity, and Content (TEC) Rubric. We examine teachers' responses to prompts and completed TEC Rubrics to understand if and how the rubric supported their evaluations. Findings: The TEC Rubric helped teachers attend not only to curricular factors related to instructional design but also to issues of equity and accessibility and to identify opportunities to draw on the cultural resources of students and their communities. Implications: We contribute evidence supporting curricular evaluation instruments, specifically the TEC Rubric, and their use to direct teachers' attention to attributes of equitable computing instruction.

Background and Context: In today's increasingly digital world, it is critical that all students learn to think computationally from an early age. Assessments of Computational Thinking (CT) are essential for capturing information about student learning and challenges. When programming is used as a vehicle to foster CT skills, assessment of CT skills needs to measure understanding of programming concepts alongside general problem-solving practices applicable in contexts beyond programming. Objective: In this paper, we discuss the development of and results from separate validated assessments of programming concepts and generic CT practices for 4th-6th grade students. Method: An Evidence-Centered Design approach was used for the development and validation of the assessments, that were used with 15,000 upper elementary students in Hong Kong. Findings: Results from assessment implementation indicate that the assessments worked as designed and reveal student challenges with CT concepts and practices. Implications: These results point to the utility of our assessment as a curricular tool and the need for emphasizing certain CT concepts and practices in future curricular initiatives and teacher professional development.

This article explores the suitability of static analysis techniques based on the abstract syntax tree (AST) for the automated assessment of early/mid degree level programming. Focus is on fairness, timeliness and consistency of grades and feedback. Following investigation into manual marking practises, including a survey of markers, the assessment of 97 student Java programming submissions is automated using static analysis rules. Initially, no correlation between human provided marks and rule violations is found. This paper investigates why, and considers several improvements to the approaches used for applying static analysis rules. New methods for application are explored and the resulting technique is applied to a second exercise with 95 submissions. The results show a stronger positive correlation with manual assessment, whilst retaining advantages in terms of time cost, pedagogic advantages and instant feedback. This study provides insight into the differences between human assessment and static analysis approaches and highlights several potential pitfalls of simplistic implementations. Finally, this paper concludes that static analysis approaches are appropriate for automated assessment; however, these approaches should be used with care.

Background and Context: in this paper, we argue that integrating Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) into K-12 computing education can present learners with opportunities to develop human-centered design skills as well as higher-order thinking skills. Objective: to address the issues related to the development of HCI forms of expertise, we introduce an approach, called embedded design, which extends cognitive apprenticeship methods. Method: we present case studies to illustrate the embedded design approach. Findings: six principles were drawn from the case studies, to inform the implementation of the embedded design approach. Three principles address learners as agents, actively participating in domain thinking processes, and three principles address facilitators as learning designers, orchestrating the co-construction of knowledge. Implications: embedded design provides concrete guidance for implementation to help learners to improve their own thinking processes and succeed in computing education fields, but more research is needed to extend what is known about these complex learning contexts.

Background and Context: Non-traditional training grounds such as coding boot camps that attract a higher proportion of women are important sites for understanding how to broaden participation in computing. Objective: This work aims to help us better understand the women choosing boot camps and their pathways through these camps and into the computing workforce. Method: This paper reports on a longitudinal, qualitative study investigating female boot camp attendees. Findings: Findings show that women attending boot camps are career changers that develop an interest in software development too late to major in CS, discovering a post-college enjoyment of programming undertaken to support work goals at a current job or an aspirational job. Implications: Women at boot camps illustrate a missed opportunity to diversify postsecondary CS classrooms when not recruited early, not given interdisciplinary options, not exposed to enjoyable programming tasks, and not exposed to the array and number of job prospects.

Background and Context: Subgoal labeled worked examples have been extensively researched, but the research has been reported piecemeal. This paper aggregates data from three studies, including data previously unreported, to holistically examine the effect of subgoal labeled worked examples across three student populations and across different instructional designs. Objective: By aggregating the data, we provide more statistical power for somewhat surprising yet replicable results. We discuss which results generalize across populations, focusing on a stable effect size for subgoal labels in programming instruction. Method: We use descriptive and inferential statistics to examine the data collected from different student populations and different classroom instructional designs. We concentrate on the effect size across samples of the intervention for generalization. Findings: Students using two variations of subgoal labeled instructional materials perform better than the others: the group that was given the subgoal labels with farther transfer between worked examples and practice problems and the group that constructed their own subgoal labels with nearer transfer between worked examples and practice problems.

Background and Context: In this theory paper, we explore the concept of translanguaging from bilingual education, and its implications for teaching and learning programming and computing in especially computer science (CS) for all initiatives. Objective: We use translanguaging to examine how programming is and isn't like using human languages. We frame CS as computational literacies. We describe a pedagogical approach for teaching computational literacies. Method: We review theory from applied linguistics, literacy, and computational literacy. We provide a design narrative of our pedagogical approach by describing activities from bilingual middle school classrooms integrating Scratch into academic subjects. Findings: Translanguaging pedagogy can leverage learners' (bilingual and otherwise) full linguistic repertoires as they engage with computational literacies. Implications: Our data helps demonstrate how translanguaging can be mobilized to do CS, which has implications for increasing equitable participation in computer science.

This study is a follow-up to one published in computer science education in 2010 that reported preliminary results showing a positive impact of service learning on student attitudes associated with success and retention in computer science. That paper described how service learning was incorporated into a computer science course in the context of the Students & Technology in Academia, Research, and Service (STARS) Alliance, an NSF-supported broadening participation in computing initiative that aims to diversify the computer science pipeline through innovative pedagogy and inter-institutional partnerships. The current paper describes how the STARS Alliance has expanded to diverse institutions, all using service learning as a vehicle for broadening participation in computing and enhancing attitudes and behaviors associated with student success. Results supported the STARS model of service learning for enhancing computing efficacy and computing commitment and for providing diverse students with many personal and professional development benefits.

To support teachers to implement Computer Science curricula into classrooms from the very first year of school, teachers, schools and organisations seek quality curriculum resources to support implementation and teacher professional development. Until now, many Computer Science resources and outreach initiatives have targeted K-12 school-age children, with the intention to engage children and increase interest, rather than to formally teach concepts and skills. What is the educational quality of existing Computer Science resources and to what extent are they suitable for classroom learning and teaching? In this paper, an assessment framework is presented to evaluate the quality of online Computer Science resources. Further, a semi-systematic review of available online Computer Science resources was conducted to evaluate resources available for classroom learning and teaching and to identify gaps in resource availability, using the Australian curriculum as a case study analysis. The findings reveal a predominance of quality resources, however, a number of critical gaps were identified. This paper provides recommendations and guidance for the development of new and supplementary resources and future research.

Situated learning theory maintains that there is a relationship between learning and the social situation in which it occurs; learning is embedded in activity, context and culture. In terms of professional learning for teachers, this implies that effective learning takes place within a community where experts and novices meet and where practice is modelled; such a community needs to be deeply relevant to everyday practice in the classroom. In this paper, we discuss Computing At School, a grass-roots organisation that has grown up over the last 10 years through teacher communities, and also with broad support of academia and industry. In a time of increased interest in the inclusion of computer science in school curricular, Computing At School is a community of practice of all teachers affected by curriculum change in Computing and models an innovative approach to professional learning that is based on community and support. We describe here how Computing At School draws on situated learning theory to contribute to the development of Computing in the curriculum, evidencing both the journey and lessons learned.

Computer Science (CS) curricula are being adopted worldwide. However, the lack of prior teaching training within this area means that we have an urgent need to provide teacher professional development. Best practice teacher professional development motivates us to construct interactive and sustainable models of professional development. However, there are challenges in doing this at the scale that we need and with the resources that are available. In this paper, we describe an ecosystem-based approach to supporting teacher professional development, aligned with best practices and with teachers' and schools' needs. An ecosystem approach operates under the coordination of a governance model, features a central hub and conceptualises the relationships of the organisations as a network. Ecosystems are underpinned by value co-creation, shared logic and can be non-geographical. We believe an ecosystem view of a teacher professional development program supports sustainability, authenticity and flexibility in how teachers engage with professional development, positioning teachers as co-contributors.

Bad smells affect maintainability and performance of model-to-model transformations. There are studies that define a set of transformation bad smells, and some of them propose techniques to recognize and--according to their complexity--fix them in a (semi)automated way. In academia it is necessary to make students aware of this subject and provide them with guidelines to improve the quality of their transformations. This paper presents the most common bad smells made by master students from Universidad de los Andes, and compares them with those from publicly available repositories of Epsilon transformation language transformations, with the purpose of knowing whether programming style affects the incidence of smells. Three concrete contributions are presented: (i) two new bad smells that enrich the existing catalogs; (ii) a process that includes the automated extraction of transformation metrics and bad smells metrics from the repositories, and a statistical analysis that helps in identifying the relation between such metrics; and (iii) a tool that automatizes the process. From the statistical analysis, we conclude that, students must be encouraged and guided to develop maintainable declarative transformations. At this point, our tool has been proved to be very useful to help improve the quality of students' transformations.

Despite the current growing popularity of the computer science (CS) major, women remain sorely underrepresented in the field, continuing to earn only 18% of bachelor's degrees. Understanding women's low rates of participation in CS is important given that the demand for individuals with CS training has grown sharply in recent years. Attracting and retaining more women to high-paying fields like CS may also help narrow the gender pay gap. Further, it is important that women participate in developing new technology so that technology advances serve the needs of both women and men. This paper explores the background characteristics, career aspirations, and self-perceptions of 1,636 female first-year college students in the United States who intend to major in CS and compares them with 4,402 male CS aspirants as well as with 26,642 women planning to major in other STEM sub-fields. The findings reveal a unique profile of women who pursue the CS major and notes many significant differences between men and women in CS and between women in CS and those in other STEM fields. For instance, women in CS tend to earn lower high school grades than women in other STEM fields, but earn higher SAT verbal scores. They also rate themselves higher than men in CS and women in other STEM fields on measures of their artistic ability, but rate themselves lower on other self-ratings, including academic and leadership ability. Further, women in CS are more likely to be undecided in their career plans than men in CS and women in other STEM fields. Understanding the unique characteristics of women in CS will help inform policies and recruitment programs designed to address the gender gap in computing.

A dilemma within computer science departments is developing sustainable ways to expand capacity within introductory computer science courses while remaining committed to inclusive practices. Training near-peer mentors for peer code review is one solution. This paper describes the preparation of near-peer mentors for their role, with a focus on regular, consistent feedback via peer code review and inclusive pedagogy. Introductory computer science students provided consistently high ratings of the peer mentors' knowledge, approachability, and flexibility, and credited peer mentor meetings for their strengthened self-efficacy and understanding. Peer mentors noted the value of videotaped simulations with reflection, discussions of inclusion, and the cohort's weekly practicum for improving practice. Adaptations of peer mentoring for different types of institutions are discussed. Computer science educators, with hopes of improving the recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups, can benefit from expanding their peer support infrastructure and improving the quality of peer mentor preparation.

Programming is an essential skill that many computing students are expected to master. However, programming can be difficult to learn. Successfully interpreting compiler error messages (CEMs) is crucial for correcting errors and progressing toward success in programming. Yet these messages are often difficult to understand and pose a barrier to progress for many novices, with struggling students often exhibiting high frequencies of errors, particularly repeated errors. This paper presents a control/intervention study on the effectiveness of enhancing Java CEMs. Results show that the intervention group experienced reductions in the number of overall errors, errors per student, and several repeated error metrics. These results are important as the effectiveness of CEM enhancement has been recently debated. Further, generalizing these results should be possible at least in part, as the control group is shown to be comparable to those in several studies using Java and other languages.

Reduction is one of the key techniques used for problem-solving in computer science. In particular, in the theory of computation and complexity (TCC), mapping and polynomial reductions are used for analysis of decidability and computational complexity of problems, including the core concept of NP-completeness. Reduction is a highly abstract technique that involves revealing close non-trivial connections between problems that often seem to have nothing in common. As a result, proper understanding and application of reduction is a serious challenge for students and a source of numerous misconceptions. The main contribution of this paper is detection of such misconceptions, analysis of their roots, and proposing a way to address them in an undergraduate TCC course. Our observations suggest that the main source of the misconceptions is the false intuitive rule "the bigger is a set/problem, the harder it is to solve." Accordingly, we developed a series of exercises for proactive prevention of these misconceptions.

Hundreds of articles have been published on the topics of teaching and learning recursion, yet fewer than 50 of them have published research results. This article surveys the computing education research literature and presents findings on challenges students encounter in learning recursion, mental models students develop as they learn recursion, and best practices in introducing recursion. Effective strategies for introducing the topic include using different contexts such as recurrence relations, programming examples, fractal images, and a description of how recursive methods are processed using a call stack. Several studies compared the efficacy of introducing iteration before recursion and vice versa. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research into how students learn and understand recursion, including a look at the possible impact of instructor attitude and newer pedagogies.

Motivation and metacognition are strongly intertwined, with learners high in self-efficacy more likely to use a variety of self-regulatory learning strategies, as well as to persist longer on challenging tasks. The aim of the research was to improve the learner's focus on the process and experience of problem-solving while using an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) and including motivational and metacognitive feedback based on the learner's past states and experiences. An existing ITS, SQL-Tutor, was used with first-year undergraduates studying a database module. The study used two versions of SQL-Tutor: the Control group used a base version providing domain feedback and the Study group used an extended version that also provided motivational and metacognitive feedback. This paper summarises the pre- and post-process results. Comparisons between groups showed some differing trends both in learning outcomes and behaviour in favour of the Study group.

The need for computing education in the K-12 curriculum has grown globally. The Republic of Korea is not an exception. In response to the need, the Korean Ministry of Education has announced an outline for software-centric computing education in the K-12 system, which aims at enhancing the current computing education with software emphasis. In this paper, we review the outline from a higher education perspective and provide insights into its constructive improvement based on our experience in computer science education in higher education and a study of global initiatives on computing education. We also consider the social environment for computing education in Korea. In the proposed implementation, we first discuss goals for software-centric computing education and identify areas of focus. The identified areas are discussed in terms of topics to be covered and appropriate exposure of knowledge depth in the three levels in the Korean K-12 system. We then discuss necessary preparations for the success of the plan from academic, governmental and social perspectives.

This paper describes and evaluates aspects of a professional development programme for existing CS teachers in secondary schools (PLAN C) which was designed to support teachers at a time of substantial curricular change. The paper’s particular focus is on the formation of a teacher professional development network across several hundred teachers and a wide geographical area. Evidence from a series of observations and teacher surveys over a two-year period is analysed with respect to the project’s programme theory in order to illustrate not onlywhetherit worked as intended, bywhy. Results indicate that the PLAN C design has been successful in increasing teachers’ professional confidence and appears to have catalysed powerful change in attitudes to learning. Presentation of challenging pedagogical content knowledge and conceptual frameworks, high-quality teacher-led professional dialogue, along with the space for reflection and classroom trials, triggered examination of the teachers’ own current practices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background and Context: Though computer science education is marked by a pronounced racial participation gap, there is little research about effective ways that teachers can be supported in creating racially-just and equitable computer science learning opportunities for students. Objectives: This paper examines how teachers engage in learning about race and equity in computer science education during professional development. Method: Drawing from data collected from 94 participants attending a summer week-long Exploring Computer Science workshop, this mixed-methods study revealed how key curricular and instructional features of professional development foster race-conscious discussions and shifts in beliefs and agency around broadening participation in computing. Findings: Given the importance of developing teacher capacity to increase opportunities for students of color in computing classrooms, the findings of this study highlight how intentionally integrating race education in the center of professional development for teachers can support teachers' equity-based beliefs and practices. Implications: Professional development for teachers that seeks to broaden participation in computing is supported by long-term professional learning that explicitly center issues of race and equity in the curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educators make consequential curricular decisions, often with little support, particularly as it relates to equity and how to support all students. This paper investigates the use of a rubric to support educators evaluating computer science curricula, especially with regards to equity. Seventeen in-service elementary teachers evaluated a computer science curriculum with and without the Teacher Accessibility, Equity, and Content (TEC) Rubric. We examine teachers' responses to prompts and completed TEC Rubrics to understand if and how the rubric supported their evaluations. The TEC Rubric helped teachers attend not only to curricular factors related to instructional design but also to issues of equity and accessibility and to identify opportunities to draw on the cultural resources of students and their communities. We contribute evidence supporting curricular evaluation instruments, specifically the TEC Rubric, and their use to direct teachers' attention to attributes of equitable computing instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is a follow-up to one published in computer science education in 2010 that reported preliminary results showing a positive impact of service learning on student attitudes associated with success and retention in computer science. That paper described how service learning was incorporated into a computer science course in the context of the Students & Technology in Academia, Research, and Service (STARS) Alliance, an NSF-supported broadening participation in computing initiative that aims to diversify the computer science pipeline through innovative pedagogy and inter-institutional partnerships. The current paper describes how the STARS Alliance has expanded to diverse institutions, all using service learning as a vehicle for broadening participation in computing and enhancing attitudes and behaviors associated with student success. Results supported the STARS model of service learning for enhancing computing efficacy and computing commitment and for providing diverse students with many personal and professional development benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background and Context: In this theory paper, we explore the concept of translanguaging from bilingual education, and its implications for teaching and learning programming and computing in especially computer science (CS) for all initiatives. Objective: We use translanguaging to examine how programming is and isn't like using human languages. We frame CS as computational literacies. We describe a pedagogical approach for teaching computational literacies. Method: We review theory from applied linguistics, literacy, and computational literacy. We provide a design narrative of our pedagogical approach by describing activities from bilingual middle school classrooms integrating Scratch into academic subjects. Findings: Translanguaging pedagogy can leverage learners' (bilingual and otherwise) full linguistic repertoires as they engage with computational literacies. Implications: Our data helps demonstrate how translanguaging can be mobilized to do CS, which has implications for increasing equitable participation in computer science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reduction is one of the key techniques used for problem-solving in computer science. In particular, in the theory of computation and complexity (TCC), mapping and polynomial reductions are used for analysis of decidability and computational complexity of problems, including the core concept of NP-completeness. Reduction is a highly abstract technique that involves revealing close non-trivial connections between problems that often seem to have nothing in common. As a result, proper understanding and application of reduction is a serious challenge for students and a source of numerous misconceptions. The main contribution of this paper is detection of such misconceptions, analysis of their roots, and proposing a way to address them in an undergraduate TCC course. Our observations suggest that the main source of the misconceptions is the false intuitive rule “the bigger is a set/problem, the harder it is to solve”. Accordingly, we developed a series of exercises for proactive prevention of these misconceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To support teachers to implement Computer Science curricula into classrooms from the very first year of school, teachers, schools and organisations seek quality curriculum resources to support implementation and teacher professional development. Until now, many Computer Science resources and outreach initiatives have targeted K-12 school-age children, with the intention to engage children and increase interest, rather than to formally teach concepts and skills. What is the educational quality of existing Computer Science resources and to what extent are they suitable for classroom learning and teaching? In this paper, an assessment framework is presented to evaluate the quality of online Computer Science resources. Further, a semi-systematic review of available online Computer Science resources was conducted to evaluate resources available for classroom learning and teaching and to identify gaps in resource availability, using the Australian curriculum as a case study analysis. The findings reveal a predominance of quality resources, however, a number of critical gaps were identified. This paper provides recommendations and guidance for the development of new and supplementary resources and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Situated learning theory maintains that there is a relationship between learning and the social situation in which it occurs; learning is embedded in activity, context and culture. In terms of professional learning for teachers, this implies that effective learning takes place within a community where experts and novices meet and where practice is modelled; such a community needs to be deeply relevant to everyday practice in the classroom. In this paper, we discuss Computing At School, a grass-roots organisation that has grown up over the last 10 years through teacher communities, and also with broad support of academia and industry. In a time of increased interest in the inclusion of computer science in school curricular, Computing At School is a community of practice of all teachers affected by curriculum change in Computing and models an innovative approach to professional learning that is based on community and support. We describe here how Computing At School draws on situated learning theory to contribute to the development of Computing in the curriculum, evidencing both the journey and lessons learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Models are expanding their use for many different purposes in the field of software engineering and, due to their importance, universities have started incorporating modeling courses into their programs. Being a relatively new discipline, teaching modeling concepts brings in new challenges. Our contribution in this paper is threefold. First, we list and describe the main issues we have come across when teaching modeling in a dedicated Software Engineering course. We then present a simple case study that we have developed and successfully used in class, which permits students specify a system and its views, simulate them, check their relations, and perform several kinds of analyses on the overall system specifications. For this, we use a combination of UML and OCL. Finally, we report on the results of a survey we conducted among the students of the last two years to evaluate our proposal, and the lessons we have learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & Context: We describe the rationale, design, and initial validation of computational thinking (CT) assessments to pair with curricular lessons that integrate fractions and CT. Objective: We used cognitive models of CT (learning trajectories; LTs) to design assessments and obtained evidence to support a validity argument Method: We used the LTs and evidence-centered design to develop assessments that 144 Grade 3 and Grade 4 elementary students completed following the integrated instruction. We analyzed data using multiple psychometric approaches. Findings: The design approach and data analysis suggest that the assessments are well-suited to evaluate students' CT knowledge, skills and abilities across multiple LTs. Implications: We show how to use LTs to design assessments that can yield valid inferences about students' CT competencies; these methods can be adopted and extended by others to create additional assessments that can advance computer science education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computational thinking (CT) is considered as a valuable literacy for all students, and its inclusion in compulsory schooling could increase the numbers of underrepresented students who pursue computing-related careers. Computer Science Unplugged (CSU) had success in making computer science (CS) accessible to K–12 students in outreach settings. Such "unplugged" approaches have the potential to do the same in formal education. This review considers how research findings on unplugged pedagogies might advance CS/CT education priorities, while highlighting areas of unknown and tension. We conducted a search in academic databases using terms +unplugged "computer science" and +unplugged CT, and related terms. We synthesized our review with existing ones to inform the priorities of CS-for-all and CT development. We surfaced CSU's limitations to broaden access for underrepresented students and suggested a remedy. We proposed 10 research questions that fill key gaps to support efforts that provide just access to quality CS/CT education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for computing education in the K-12 curriculum has grown globally. The Republic of Korea is not an exception. In response to the need, the Korean Ministry of Education has announced an outline for software-centric computing education in the K-12 system, which aims at enhancing the current computing education with software emphasis. In this paper, we review the outline from a higher education perspective and provide insights into its constructive improvement based on our experience in computer science education in higher education and a study of global initiatives on computing education. We also consider the social environment for computing education in Korea. In the proposed implementation, we first discuss goals for software-centric computing education and identify areas of focus. The identified areas are discussed in terms of topics to be covered and appropriate exposure of knowledge depth in the three levels in the Korean K-12 system. We then discuss necessary preparations for the success of the plan from academic, governmental and social perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: As teachers work to broaden the participation of racially and ethnically underrepresented groups in computer science (CS), culturally responsive computing (CRC) becomes more pertinent to formal settings. Objective: Yet, equity-oriented literature offers limited guidance for developing deep forms of CRC in the classroom. In response, we support the claim that "it takes a village" to develop equity-oriented CS education but additively highlight the roles of cultural experts in the process. Methods: We use a case study methodology to explore one instance of this: a collaboration between a multi-racial team of researchers, a Black cosmetologist, and a White technology teacher. Findings: Three themes supported the CRC collaboration: multi-directional relationship building, iterative engagement with culture-computing, and collaborative implementation of a hybrid lesson. Implications: As opposed to orienting broadening participation around extractive metaphors like "pipelines," our case study constructs the metaphor of an "open village" to orient CS education toward collaborations between schools and the communities they serve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable numbers of Computer science (CS) undergraduate majors struggle in Theory of Computation (ToC) courses, which strengthen bimodality beliefs of student performance. Reasons for students struggling are assumed to be manifold but substantial ground is based on studies providing singular insights into this matter. To understand students' issues with ToC, we analysed their performance on homework and exams and replicated our study in two consecutive years. We used exploratory data analysis to compare students' performances within single assignments. With one-way analyses of variances, we focused on significant differences between the years. Our results indicate that students' homework performance did not predict their exam performance and that all students, independent of their grade, had the most difficulty with formal proofs. Our results challenge potential beliefs about bimodal student performance indicating all CS undergraduates require thorough training in proof techniques to improve their overall performance in ToC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Context: While assessment of computational thinking concepts, practices, and perspectives is at the forefront of K-12 CS education, supporting student communication about computation has received relatively little attention. Objective: To examine the usability of process-based portfolios for capturing students' communication about their computational practices regarding the process of making electronic textile projects. Method: We examined the portfolios of 248 high school students in 15 introductory CS classrooms from largely underserved communities, using a formal rubric (top-down) to code computational communication and an open-coding scheme (bottom-up) to identify computational practices described. Findings: Students demonstrated stronger abilities to communicate about computation using text than visuals. They also reported under-assessed CT practices like debugging, iterating, and collaborating. Students of experienced e-textile teachers performed substantially better than those with novice e-textile teachers. Implications: Portfolios provide a viable addition to traditional performance or survey assessments and meet a need to promote communication skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have been looking into the complexity of computer science (CS) education and tried to apply rigorous and relevant educational research methods to understand and facilitate the learning experience of students. The purpose of this study was to explore college students' conceptions of learning CS to shed light on student learning activities, feelings, contexts, and beliefs about their learning. Draw-a-picture technique was used as an emerging research technique in CS education. Using a modified coding checklist, we analyzed the drawings into 9 categories with 50 sub-categories. College students most frequently expressed computer programming as the learning activity by illustrating syntax and semantics of programming languages in the drawings. Problem-solving constructs like decomposition and abstraction were also recorded along with other tools like diagramming techniques. Gender and prior computer science experience were analyzed as moderators. The results provide a baseline for future research on the topic and preliminary evidence in using the method to discern student learning conceptions in CS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Context: EarSketch was developed as a program to foster persistence in computer science with diverse student populations. Objective: To test the effectiveness of EarSketch in promoting intentions to persist, particularly among female students and under-represented minority students. Method: Meta-analyses, structural equation modeling, multi-level modeling, and qualitative analyses were performed to examine how participation in EarSketch and other factors affect students' intentions to persist in computing. Findings: Students significantly increased their intentions to persist in computing, g =.40[.25,54], but examination within just the five quasi-experimental studies did not result in a significant difference for students in EarSketch compared to students not in EarSketch, g =.08[−.07,.23]. Student attitudes towards computing and the perceived authenticity of the EarSketch environment significantly predicted intentions to persist in computing. Implications: Participation in computer science education can increase students' intentions to persist in programming, and EarSketch is one such program that can aid in these intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]