Background and Objective: Teacher assessment research suggests that teachers have good conceptual understanding of CT. However, to model CT-based problem-solving in their classrooms, teachers need to develop the ability to recognize when and how to apply CT skills. Does existing professional development (PD) equip teachers to know when and how to…

Those working toward equitable K-12 computing education in the United States have always had their work cut out for them: understanding how best to teach, developing robust curricula, designing novel tools, building teacher capacity, and supporting systemic change in schools to bring equitable computing education to young people. Collectively,…

This article reports on a design-based research study centered on the conception and the assessment of the "Pyrates" application. This online serious game aims at introducing Python programming to K-12 students while easing the transition from block-based to text-based languages. After we present the various aspects underlying the…

Objectives: Computer Science (CS) education has become increasingly prevalent in elementary schools because of multiple rationales, such as the importance of computational literacy and the growing demand for CS-related workforce preparation. As elementary CS standards continue to be adopted by many states, more examples and voices from the field…

Digital literacy is considered to be crucial for social and professional participation. Hence, several projects have been launched in school, as well as extracurricular activities to promote digital literacy in middle school. They aim, among other things, to increase interest in the so-called STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and…

Introduction: Computer science (CS) lacks representation from people who identify as one or more of the following identities: woman, Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, Latina/Latino/Latinx, or disabled. We refer to these groups as historically underrepresented groups (HUGs). Informal learning, like CS summer camps and hackathons, can increase interest…

This paper presents a systematic literature review of professional development programs in computational thinking (CT). CT has emerged as an essential set of skills that everyone should develop to participate in a global society. However, there were no pre-service or in-service teacher programs to integrate CT into the K-12 classrooms until very…

Motivation: As K-12 computing education becomes more established throughout the world, there is an increasing focus on accessibility for all, whether in a particular country or setting or in areas of the world that may not yet have computing established. This is primarily articulated as an equity issue. The recently developed "capacity…

Programming education is strongly emerging in elementary and high school. Diversity and inclusion are important topics, however, insights on suited programming materials for younger learners with visual impairments are lacking. A wide range of programming materials for children exists, diverse in both what is being programmed (output) and how this…

The Computer Science for All movement is bringing CS to K-12 classrooms across the nation. At the same time, new technologies created by computer scientists have been reproducing existing inequities that directly impact today's youth, while being "promoted and perceived as more objective or progressive than the discriminatory systems of a…

Despite the increasing number of women receiving bachelor's degrees in computing (i.e., Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, etc.), a closer look reveals that the percentage of Black women in computing has significantly dropped in recent years, highlighting the underrepresentation of Black women and its negative impact…

Design is a distinct discipline with its own practices, tools, professions, and areas of scholarship. However, practitioners from other fields often leverage aspects of design in their own work, leading to subfields like engineering design and architecture design that are neither wholly design nor wholly the intersecting discipline. Similarly,…

The subgoal learning framework has improved performance for novice programmers in higher education, but it has only started to be applied and studied in K-12 (primary/secondary). Programming education in K-12 is growing, and many international initiatives are attempting to increase participation, including curricular initiatives like Computer…

Electronic textiles, which integrate computation with fabrics through a redesigned interface of microcontrollers, sensors, and actuators, have expanded possibilities not only for engineering, fashion, and human-computer interaction but also for computer science education itself. While individual studies involving electronic textiles have shown…

In response to the growing call to bring the powerful ideas of computer science to all learners, education decision makers, including teachers and administrators, are tasked with making consequential decisions on what curricula to use. Often, these decision makers have not been trained in computer science and are unfamiliar with the concepts…