International Journal of Computer Science Education in Schools

The perceptions of secondary school students regarding the learning of computer programming at Key Stage 4 in the revised curriculum in England: problems and solutions.

Almabrok Almdahem — 2024-11-19

Programming is becoming progressively important for many societies in the world today. It is also required in educational institutions and is especially important for students who will be graduating and looking for employment opportunities in the future. However, the teaching of a programming is not well developed in many secondary schools in different areas in England. Today, teaching programming is considered to be of the priority domain of several countries in the twenty-first century. Interest in this domain is wide and the amount of research conducted in the field is numerous.

This study was designed to investigate and to aid a critical students’ understanding of the learning of programming in the revised Key Stage 4 (KS4) Computer Science (CS) curriculum. It seeks to understand the impact of learning programming on student’s perceptions toward programming and how to improve the teaching and learning of programming.

The study found that the issues faced by students learning programming include a lack of time, the perception that it is a ‘difficult’ subject and students’ insufficient understanding of programming. The findings also suggest that schools have made efforts to overcome these challenges and are willing to adopt programming as a subject and to help, encourage, develop and improve students’ ability to learn programming.

Investigating the impact of introducing pair programming to primary computing education on female pupils’ attitudes towards computing

Katharine Childs — 2024-11-19

Gender balance in computing education is a decades-old issue that has been the focus of much previous research. In K-12, the introduction of mandatory computing education goes some way to giving all learners the opportunity to engage with computing throughout school, but a gender imbalance still persists when computer science becomes an elective subject. The study described in this paper investigates whether introducing pair programming would make a difference to primary-aged girls’ attitudes to computing and intent to study the subject in the future. A randomised controlled trial (RCT) was designed and implemented around a 12-week intervention with 785 female pupils between the ages of 8 and 10 years, alongside a qualitative evaluation investigating teachers’ and pupils' experience of the interventions and the development of materials and teacher preparation resources. The results of the RCT showed no statistically significant changes in student attitudes towards computing or intent to study further, although the qualitative data indicated that both teachers and pupils found the interventions engaging and enjoyable. Themes emerging from the qualitative data point to the importance of collaboration in supporting a development in pupil confidence. Overall, these results emphasise the societal and systemic barriers around computer science and technology engagement across genders that persist despite many initiatives being implemented over many years.

Students as creators of contexts for learning algorithms: how collaborative context design contributes to a wide range of learning outcomes

Jacqueline Nijenhuis-Voogt — 2024-11-19

A context-based approach to education aims to improve students’ meaningful learning and uses authentic situations in which scientific concepts are applied. The use of contexts may contribute to the learning of abstract concepts such as algorithms. The selection of appropriate contexts, however, is challenging for teachers. It is therefore interesting to examine whether students can play an active role in the conception of such contexts and how designing contexts may contribute to student learning. As a case study, we investigated students' design of contexts for learning algorithms in upper secondary education. We developed lessons in which students collaboratively designed contexts and then reflected individually on all contexts proposed. At the end of these lessons, students completed a learner report. The students' design of contexts provided a remarkably wide range of learning outcomes. Students not only reported to have learned more about the lesson topic (algorithmic concepts and the application of these), but the learning reports also reflected learning about the process (learning with contexts, designing contexts, and collaboration). Our findings suggest that designing contexts contributes to active learning. The results of this study may serve as recommendations for future research concerning the role of students in designing contexts.

Reverse Engineering in Robotics Classrooms: Boosting Creative Thinking and Problem Solving

Sevinç PARLAK — 2024-11-19

This study explores the impact of robotics activities on the creativity and problem-solving performances of secondary school students. The participants consisted of 10 students from a computer science class at a secondary school. The robotics activities utilized Lego Ev3 kits and incorporated reverse engineering principles. Data were gathered using open-ended forms created to evaluate students' perspectives on creativity while engaging in tasks and their robotics problem-solving performances. The findings revealed that, most of the students demonstrated proficient skills, particularly in recognising problems, and creating alternatives, while their reasoning, applying the solution, and sharing skills were adequate. We hope this study will offer a valuable example of how to incorporate robotic activities within the reverse engineering approach.