Design education is in need of a wider restructuring to accommodate new developments and paradigmatic shifts brought forth by the information age, all of which capitalise a move towards complexity theory, systems science and digital technologies. The intention of this article is to approach one particular aspect of this need: that is, how basic…

Several experiments on the effects of pair programming versus solo programming in the context of education have been reported in the research literature. We present a meta-analysis of these studies that accounted for 18 manuscripts with 28 independent effect sizes in the domains of programming assignments, exams, passing rates, and affective…

There are many difficulties with learning and teaching programming that can be alleviated with the use of software tools. Most of these tools have focused on the teaching of introductory programming concepts where commonly code fragments or small user programs are run in a sandbox or virtual machine, often in the cloud. These do not permit user…

Stan is a probabilistic programming language for specifying statistical models. A Stan program imperatively defines a log probability function over parameters conditioned on specified data and constants. As of version 2.14.0, Stan provides full Bayesian inference for continuous-variable models through Markov chain Monte Carlo methods such as the…

This research examined over 200 elementary students' pre and post-test changes in computational thinking from a 10-week coding program delivered as part of the regular school day. Participants benefited from early access to computer science (CS) lessons with increases in understanding and applying coding concepts. Interviews from participants…

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…

This paper explores relationships between knowledge production and academic publication and shows that the current political economy of mainstream academic publishing has resulted from a complex interplay between large academic publishers, academics, and hacker-activists. The process of publishing is a form of 'social production' that takes place…

This article discusses the design and implementation of a new programming tool for Greek novices as a means to improve introductory programing instruction in Greece. We implemented Koios, a new highly interactive and visual programming tool for Greek novices, based on the body of research in the field of psychology of programming. The main…

This study examined two sections of "Reporting and Writing I." One taught writing for text and broadcast concurrently, whereas the other taught these skills sequentially. A student survey found a strong preference for learning subjects sequentially. Outside evaluators assessing final stories rated text projects from students taught…

This research is part of a larger three-year study investigating the impact of humanoid robots on students' learning and engagement. In this case study, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students worked with a humanoid robot to develop, in parallel, both their programming skills and their understanding of the traditional Narungga language and culture.…

The aim of this study was to investigate the factors affecting the pre-service computer science teachers' attitudes towards computer programming (ATCP). The sample consists of 119 preservice teachers at a public state university. The influences of students' demographic characteristics (gender, grade level, and high school type), their achievement…

Computational thinking (CT), the ability to devise computational solutions for real-life problems, has received growing attention from both educators and researchers. To better improve university students' CT competence, collaborative programming is regarded as an effective learning approach. However, how novice programmers develop CT competence…

This article explores children's development of problem-solving practices through multimodal engagements in digital activities. The study is based on analyses of a video recorded peer group activity in which two children, within the context of a project on computational thinking using the software "Scratch," collaboratively work to solve…

This paper describes an Open University eSTEeM project that gathered the experiences of computing and information technology tutors who teach an undergraduate module called "Web Technologies" with the intention of understanding more about how they and their students can be best supported. Twelve distance learning tutors were interviewed…

Educational data mining (EDM) has been a rapidly growing research field over the last decade and enabled researchers to discover patterns and trends in education with more sophisticated methods. EDM offers promising solutions to complex educational problems. Given the rapid increase in the availability of big data in education and software…