Within SICSA institutions we are doing excellent, ground-breaking work within the field of computing education research. We have asked the newly formed Education Champions to write short blogs about the research within their particular institution.
At the University of Glasgow, the Centre for Computing Science Education supports several education research projects.
Spatial skills
Jack Parkinson is researching the connection between spatial ability and success in Computing Science at a university level. It has been discovered that, along with many STEM subjects, success in computing courses at university correlate with one’s spatial skills: that is, their ability to mentally manipulate 2D and 3D objects, identify visual patterns and other spatial cognitive tasks.
Programming Language Transfer For Novice
Ethel Tshukudu is investigating conceptual transfer for relative novices when they transition from one programming language to another as they progress in their level of Computing Science Education.
Graphical Representations of Statistical Cognition
Lovisa Sundin is investigating ways of helping novices implement statistical procedures programmatically. Specifically, she is interested in a range of graphical techniques meant to address various cognitive aspects of this process: the conceptual, the computational and the syntactic.
Mental Models for Programming
Peter Donaldson is currently investigating conceptual models of programming languages and systems (notional machine models) and which types of activities help novices to develop a more coherent and accurate mental model of how they work.
Early Play and Programming
Elizabeth Cole is investigating the role of early play in the development of foundational programming skills.