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Computer Science and programming courses are generally considered to be difficult, particularly for students in the first year of a third-level course. As such, it is an important role to support these students as they begin their education in order to better cement their learning, and to reduce drop-out rates and other early issues. In Ireland, many third-level institutions offer additional dedicated supports to their Computer Science and programming students to augment the traditional lectures, tutorials, and laboratory sessions. This paper provides a review of the current state of Computer Science Support in Ireland. It features case studies from a sample of six third-level institutions, with authors from each institution detailing the support services they offer to their students. A survey was also sent to all third-level institutions in Ireland, asking for feedback about their support services (or lack thereof). Fifteen responses were received from institutions who provide additional supports (no responses were received from institutions without). From the results of this survey, and the authors' personal perspectives and experience, recommendations will be made for those looking to develop their own support services, or to improve upon existing ones. Some of the key findings from this survey are that most supports in Ireland come in the form of dedicated tutors or support centres, more support is offered on average earlier in undergraduate degrees and that most respondents agree that we need to support novice programmers. Some of the recommendations include all institutions offering some form of support service, offering it as a free service and ensuring all ability levels are catered for. Advertising the service appropriately is also important. It is the correct time to undertake such a review due to the continued growth of Computer Science as a subject, not only at third level, but now also at second level with the introduction of Computer Science to the Leaving Certificate options. Further work is ongoing in this area, with both a national group setup and an annual workshop planned to enter its second iteration in 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Support Centres" are a form of intervention, particularly prevalent in Ireland and the UK through which undergraduate students interact with one or more tutors who help them with their studies. They primarily exist in the Mathematics and Computer Science fields. These centres tend to be remedial, in general aiming to improve the knowledge of struggling students, while also offering additional material to students looking for more of a challenge. The Computer Science Centre at Maynooth University is a drop-in tutoring service which provides free tutoring to students, primarily of programming modules, in the first and second year of their degree. This service has been running in our Computer Science department since 2012. In the 2019-2020 academic year, two full time tutors were hired to refocus and improve the centre. This resulted in the creation of a redevelopment plan and relaunch of the centre, which will be presented in this paper. The results of this redevelopment were very promising with the attendance of the centre increasing by over 800% compared to the 2018-2019 academic year. The students who did attend the centre also performed better on average than those students who did not attend the centre in their first-year undergraduate programming modules. An analysis of data relating to students visits to the centre will be presented and discussed. This paper discusses in detail the redevelopment within the centre and the work carried out by these tutors in their first year, while also presenting future plans for the centre. Guidelines are presented on managing an effective support centre (through our redevelopment plan and support methods), with the hope that more institutions in both Ireland and abroad will consider supporting their students with this methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Computer Science (CS) subject is currently being rolled out nationally into upper second level education in Ireland since September 2018 on a phased basis. The first cohort of students from phase 1 of the subjects' national rollout completed the first ever Computer Science Leaving Certificate examination in June 2020. This addition to computer science education (CSE) in Ireland now offers students an opportunity to attain a formal qualification in CS prior to entering tertiary education. Irish higher education (HE) institutions will now begin to see a change in student intake on their undergraduate CS programmes, where 'LCCS students' might enrol in first year alongside students who do not have the same level of prior knowledge in the discipline. This qualitative study explores CS lecturers' perceptions of the Leaving Certificate Computer Science (LCCS) curriculum and its influence on teaching in HE through semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis of the interview transcripts identified five key themes. The paper draws attention to aspects which may provide HE policy makers, heads of computer science departments and lecturers with greater insight into the realities of this addition of CS to the Leaving Certificate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new school subject, Leaving Certificate Computer Science, was introduced in September 2018 into Irish schools in a period of curriculum reform and change. Drawing on concepts of teacher agency and learner agency, and viewed through a figurational sociology lens, this paper explored the realities of teaching LCCS and the role teacher agency and learner agency played in such enactment. Through a case study design, four teachers were interviewed in a focus group semi-structured manner. To delve deeper into the pedagogical approaches used in LCCS, a further one teacher and their nine students were interviewed. The findings highlight an influential relationship (positive and negative, encouraging and discouraging) between teachers' agentic decisions in their process of achieving teacher agency and the students process of achieving learner agency. The paper offers a figurational viewpoint of the relationship between teacher agency and learner agency through a constructed Figure. We explicitly argue that the responsibility should not be placed on the teacher and student in achieving agency (as a product) but it is a combination of the teacher and the students and the other interdependent relationships within their figurations, alongside contextual factors, and educational social processes, which determine the fluctuation of the process of achieving teacher and learner agency. The paper provides considerations for computer science teacher education. • Explores the relationship between teacher agency and learner agency in Computer Science subject. • Uses figurational sociology to further understand the process of achieving agency. • Qualitative research study. • Considerations provided for Computer Science teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incoming university students who have not previously studied computer programming often find it a challenging subject, leading to high failure rates. Research has suggested that the lack of a formalised structure for collaborative learning may be one of the factors responsible for students' negative impressions of computer science. In this study we investigated whether the use of pair programming in practical laboratories would facilitate peer learning and enhance students' confidence in their programming ability. Results showed that this intervention was generally well received, although the weaker programmers (as measured by prior exam grades) perceived it to be of more benefit than the stronger ones. Students who reported a lower initial level of enjoyment and confidence in programming were more likely to report learning from the paired intervention, though this did not necessarily lead to enhanced performance. The most frequently reported positive feature of pair programming was that it allowed students to meet more people in the class. Although there was no significant increase in final exam grades for male students, there was a significant increase for female students, suggesting this teaching strategy may have asymmetrical gender benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]