Educational game designers face persistent challenges in integrating learning activities seamlessly into gameplay. Existing content integration strategies, such as intrinsic and extrinsic integration, often struggle to balance motivation, engagement, and learning outcomes effectively. This paper addresses these long-standing challenges by…

Educational games have gained widespread interest among teachers and researchers across various fields due to their capacity to engage students, foster active participation, and improve learning outcomes. In the context of computer programming, which demands significant cognitive effort, the use of educational games has grown substantially. While…

Computer programming is regarded as an important skill for the future. However, many K-12 students face challenges and difficulties in learning traditional text-based programming. Block-based visual programming (BVP) can reduce the difficulty of learning programming and is seen as a potential programming education tool. Nevertheless, the effects…

The need to integrate the teaching and learning of computational thinking (CT) in K-12 education has been on the rise since it was identified as a skill for solving 21st-century problems. The co-design pedagogical approach has shown great potential in promoting effective communication of CT to both university and K-12 students with the support of…

Middle school students often enter Computer Science (CS) classes without previous CS or Computational Thinking (CT) instruction. This study evaluated how Code.org's block-based programming curriculum affects middle school students' CT skills and attitudes toward CT and CS. Sixteen students participated in the study. This was a mixed methods action…

This study examines the effectiveness of a collaborative support method in enhancing programming learning outcomes in a serious game. The game Code Hasp was developed to facilitate the comparison between two support methods, worked examples and a collaborative peer support approach. A total of 111 elementary school students participated, divided…

The introductory programming disciplines, which include the teaching of algorithms and computational logic, have high failure and dropout rates. Developing Computational Thinking in students can contribute to learning programming fundamentals by building algorithmic and problem-solving skills. However, keeping students engaged in training such…

This study explores the potential of the large language model GPT-4 as an automated tool for qualitative data analysis by educational researchers, exploring which techniques are most successful for different types of constructs. Specifically, we assess three different prompt engineering strategies -- Zero-shot, Few-shot, and Fewshot with…

This study critically reviews sixteen empirical studies that investigate the various difficulties that primary school students encounter while learning programming through educational games. Specifically, the challenges that students face in understanding basic programming concepts and the game elements that contribute to these difficulties, as…

This article presents a systematic literature review on escape rooms as a didactic tool for teaching and learning programming. The review examined the programming topics and languages addressed, the educational levels targeted, evaluation methods used and key design elements such as format, duration, location and narrative structure.…

Recently scientists have underscored a significant mismatch between the latest theoretical Computational Thinking conceptualizations as an upcoming literacy that goes beyond computer science, and its operationalizations in current empirical research and designs, which are limited to coding-centred and domain-specific tools and approaches. To…

Background/purpose: Programming education faces persistent challenges, including high attrition rates, low student engagement, and difficulty grasping abstract concepts. Innovative pedagogical strategies are needed to support today's diverse learners better. Game-Based Learning (GBL) has emerged as a promising approach that uses interactive and…

The importance of gameplay extends beyond mere entertainment, playing a crucial role in shaping behavioral intentions (BIs) in various contexts. This research aims to discover how digital gameplay influences students' BIs, mainly in the context of technology adoption in education. The main objective is to investigate the impact of digital gameplay…

This study examined the effect of gamification on visual programming and computational thinking skills among primary school students, aiming to investigate how gamified learning environments enhance cognitive skill development and conceptual integration compared to traditional teaching methods. A quasi-experimental design was employed, involving…

These proceedings contain the papers of the 22nd International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2025), held in Porto, Portugal, from 1 to 3 November 2025 and organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS). [Individual papers are indexed in ERIC.]