During a relatively short period of time, programming has been implemented in the national curriculum of the compulsory school in Sweden. Since 2018, programming is a new content in the technology subject and the research field has discussed some of the challenges teachers and students, who generally have little experiences of programming, face…

Researchers are increasingly calling for more computational thinking (CT) teaching tools and activities designed for young children. Considering young children's need to draw on their bodily experiences to learn abstract concepts, this study applied the embodied cognition perspective to design an unplugged (non-computer-based) toolkit with…

Background and Context: Auto-graders are praised by novice students learning to program, as they provide them with automatic feedback about their problem-solving process. However, some students often make random changes when they have errors in their code, without engaging in deliberate thinking about the cause of the error. Objective: To…

Mixed-effects models are an analytic technique for modeling repeated measurement or nested data. This paper explains the logic of mixed-effects modeling and describes two examples of mixed-effects analyses using R. The intended audience of the paper is psychologists who specialize in cognitive development research. Therefore, the concepts and…

This study examined the developmental process of children's computational thinking using block-based programming tools, specifically algorithmic thinking and debugging skills. With this aim, a group of children (N = 191) from two primary schools were studied for two years beginning from the fourth grade, as they engaged in our block-based…

The purpose of this study is to analyze which behaviors are or are not helpful for debugging when a novice is in a state of unproductive persistence. Further, this project will exploratorily use a variety of analytical techniques -- including association rule mining, process mining, frequent sequence mining, and machine learning-- in order to…

Computational thinking (CT), an essential 21st century skill, incorporates key computer science concepts such as abstraction, algorithms, and debugging. Debugging is particularly underrepresented in the CT training literature. This multi-level meta-analysis focused on debugging as a core CT skill, and investigated the effects of various debugging…

This paper considers how a curricular design that integrated computer programming and creative movement shaped students' engagement with computing. We draw on data from a camp for middle schoolers, focusing on an activity in which students used the programming environment NetLogo to re-represent their physical choreography. We analyze the extent…

The study investigates the potential of anxiety clusters in predicting programming performance in two distinct coding environments. Participants comprised 83 second-year programming students who were randomly assigned to either a block-based or a text-based group. Anxiety-induced behaviors were assessed using physiological measures (Apple Watch…

Debugging is an intellectually rich and a challenging process when learning a programming language. This process is important for increasing the quality of the program and making it functional. Debugging, by its nature, is thought to be a practice with a state of focus and concentration. This study explored whether the debugging performance could…

To make sense of our interconnected and algorithm driven world, students increasingly need proficiency with computational thinking (CT), systems thinking (ST), and computational modeling. One aspect of computational modeling that can support students with CT, ST, and modeling is testing and debugging. Testing and debugging enables students to…

Self-explanation prompts in example-based learning are usually directed backwards: Learners are required to self-explain problem-solving steps just presented ("retrospective" prompts). However, it might also help to self-explain upcoming steps ("anticipatory" prompts). The effects of the prompt type may differ for learners with…

As computational thinking (CT) is new to teachers, they need support on how CT integration will work. This study examines the use of a hypothetical learning trajectory (HLT) to support teachers in integrating computational thinking into mathematics lessons utilizing GeoGebra. By employing the educational design research (EDR) methodology, the…

Debugging is a core skill required by programmers, yet we know little about how to effectively teach the process of debugging. The challenges of learning debugging are compounded for novices who lack experience and are still learning the tools they need to program effectively. In this work, we report a case study in which we used a think-aloud…

There has been a paradigm shift from accommodations to the identification of levels of accessibility (e.g., universal features, designated features, and accommodations). A consequence of this shift is that many students with disabilities who previously were assigned accommodations now access many of them as universal or designated features. This…