Learning Difficulties in Computing Courses: Cognitive Processes Assessment Methods Research and Application

Learning difficulties in computing courses is a situation perceived in diverse universities from different countries, cultures and backgrounds. These difficulties directly affect achievement rates and increase course evasion. We believe in the existence of a foundation of cognitive processes, that without it, even the most motivated student would have trouble to transform the received information into knowledge. This work has focused mainly on the research of candidate methods for cognitive processes assessment with a strong background theory. With this kind of information would be possible to devise cognitive interventions, in order to evolve students cognitive level, and consequently, raise their success rates. A systematic review was conducted and among the many researched methods we selected Lawson Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning – LCTSR. Authorized by its author, we conducted the first translation of LCTSR to Brazilian Portuguese and administered to students of three undergraduate computing courses: Information Systems, Computer Science and Software Engineering. We also present results of its administration that we consider important to reinforce the above suggested strategy

Didaktinen kolmio luonnontieteen opetuksen tutkimuksen arvioinnissa

Peer reviewe

Emergence of computing education as a research discipline

This thesis investigates the changing nature and status of computing education research (CER) over a number of years, specifically addressing the question of whether computing education can legitimately be considered a research discipline. The principal approach to addressing this question is an examination of the published literature in computing education conferences and journals. A classification system was devised for this literature, one goal of the system being to clearly identify some publications as research – once a suitable definition of research was established. When the system is applied to a corpus of publications, it becomes possible to determine the proportion of those publications that are classified as research, and thence to detect trends over time and similarities and differences between publication venues. The classification system has been applied to all of the papers over several years in a number of major computing education conferences and journals. Much of the classification was done by the author alone, and the remainder by a team that he formed in order to assess the inter-rater reliability of the classification system. This classification work led to two subsequent projects, led by Associate Professor Judy Sheard and Professor Lauri Malmi, that devised and applied further classification systems to examine the research approaches and methods used in the work reported in computing education publications. Classification of nearly 2000 publications over ranges of 3-10 years uncovers both strong similarities and distinct differences between publication venues. It also establishes clear evidence of a substantial growth in the proportion of research papers over the years in question. These findings are considered in the light of published perspectives on what constitutes a discipline of research, and lead to a confident assertion that computing education can now rightly be considered a discipline of research

Stress Levels of CS1 Students During Programming- Measurement and a Cause and Effect Analysis

Stress is a kind of feeling we experience when we are under pressure. Stress is the word that we use when we feel that we are overloaded mentally in our thoughts and wonder whether we can cope with those placed upon us. The effects of stress are different for different people when we take their age, profession, gender and other aspects into consideration. Many studies show that stress in a learning environment impacts learning negatively. In this thesis, the role of stress on students in an introductory programming course (CS1) at CSU has been explored. Introductory programming course has a high attrition rate nationwide. A project was developed to investigate whether students feel stress during programming . This thesis also gives whether that stress is correlated with gender, prior exposure to programming, and math background. A device called Neurosky is used to perform a low-cost EEG (electroencephalogram) by using inexpensive dry sensors to record the brain wave values of the participants in two different tasks. The test results have shown that the students feel stress during programming. A basic metric is used to determine the stress levels of the participants. Later four hypotheses are proposed by observing the comparisons and tested using statistical hypothesis testing to correlate stress with the participant\u27s gender, major, prior programming experience and with their ACT/SAT scores. The test results proved that all these hypotheses are valid with the collected data

Suomalaisten ja chileläisten alaluokkien opettajien esille tuomia uskomuksia ongelmanratkaisusta

Peer reviewe

Ongelmanratkaisutehtävät luokanopettajan ammatillisen kehittymisen tukena

Eräs keino tukea opettajan ammatillista kehittymistä on houkutella häntä käyttämään avoimia ongelmanratkaisutehtäviä opetuksessaan. Tässä projektissa ongelmanratkaisutunteja on lähes joka kuukausi ja osallistuvat luokanopettajat Chilessä ja Suomessa teettävät niitä tunneillaan. Artikkeli kuvaa erään projektimme suomalaisen opettajan ammatillista kehittymistä. Haastatteluaineiston avulla kuvataan hänen käsityksiään matematiikasta, sen oppimisesta ja opettamisesta, sekä hänen pedagogisia tavoitteitaan ja opetusfilosofiaansa. Oppitunneilla kuvattuun videoaineistoon nojautuentehdään havaintoja hänen käytänteistäänja toiminnastaan ongelmanratkaisun ohjaajana.Peer reviewe

Landscapes of Affective Interaction: Young Children's Enactive Engagement with Body Metaphors

Empirical research into embodied meaning making suggests specific sensorimotor experiences can support children’s understanding of abstract science ideas. This view is aligned with enactive and grounded cognition perspectives, both centred in the view that our ability to conceptualise emerges from our experiences of interaction with our environment. While much of this research has focused on understanding action and action processes in individual children or children in pairs, less attention has been paid to affective dimensions of young children’s group interaction, and how this relates to meaning making with body metaphors. Indeed, Gallagher describes how no action exists in a vacuum, but rather revolves around a complex web of affective-pragmatic features comprising a ‘Landscape of Interaction’ (2020, p.42). This research project addresses gaps in research in understanding young children’s affective engagement from an enactivist cognition perspective. It takes a Design-Based Research approach with an iterative design orientation to examine young children’s interaction with multisensory body-based metaphors through an embodied participation framework. A series of empirical studies with young children, aged 2-7 years, comprising of experiential workshops, build iteratively upon each other. A novel theoretically informed method, Affective Imagination in Motion, is developed involving several purpose-built multisensory body metaphors prompts to enable access to dimensions of young children’s affective engagement. This research makes theoretical and methodological contributions. It extends the theoretical notion of ‘affect’ from enactive and grounded cognition perspectives through identifying key interactive processes in young children’s engagement with multisensory action metaphors. In addition, the novel method offers a contribution as a way of ‘looking’ at affect within a group situation from affective-pragmatic and social embodiment perspectives. Finally, the research contributes to embodied learning design frameworks offering a guideline for designers wishing to inform their work from enactive cognition perspective