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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: 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.

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]

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]