We have a website at the Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre that is kept more frequently up-to-date. For blog posts by Sue Sentance, you can now go to https://computingeducationresearch.org/
RIP Python School
We're all involved in so many projects and love to share our latest new thing, through blogs and social media. New beginnings and amazing solutions. However, this post is about the end of a thing. It is perhaps rather indulgent of me to share the story of Python School at such length but closing it… Continue reading RIP Python School
Research to practice in the context of school computing education
Education researchers carry out research with the ultimate goal of improving the learning outcomes of learners. In my field, this relates to computing education in school, which is a relatively new offering compared to other more established disciplines. There is a lot to learn about how students and teachers learn and teach computing effectively. In… Continue reading Research to practice in the context of school computing education
Computer Science Education in schools in Africa
I'm delighted to share details of a new project I'm involved in. Colleagues from Botswana, Nigeria and Kenya are working together to investigate primay and secondary computing education provision in their countries, and potentially other countries across Africa. This month we launched a survey for teachers of computer studies in Africa to find out what… Continue reading Computer Science Education in schools in Africa
WiPSCE 2019 – a ceilidh and more!
I've just attended WIPSCE 2019 at the University of Glasgow, UK, hosted by Quintin Cutts and Peter Donaldson and team at the Centre for Computing Science Education. I really enjoyed the conference, as I do all WIPSCE conferences! In fact it was my 8th, as I have been every year since 2012, the first year… Continue reading WiPSCE 2019 – a ceilidh and more!
New paper: PRIMM and sociocultural theory
Together with Jane Waite and Maria Kallia, I've recently published a new paper about PRIMM called Teaching computer programming with PRIMM: a sociocultural perspective There are 50 free eprints available. Download one here. If they run out, contact me! I've written about PRIMM elsewhere, and I also presented a shorter paper on it at SIGCSE… Continue reading New paper: PRIMM and sociocultural theory
Situated Learning and Computing At School – new paper
I have recently published, with Simon Humphreys, a new paper on situated learning and teacher professional development in computing education, using Computing At School (CAS) as an example. This paper looks at situated learning and what it really means, and what Lave and Wenger (1991) meant by a community of practice. The term "community of… Continue reading Situated Learning and Computing At School – new paper
Computing in the Curriculum: Identifying and responding to the challenges
In October 2017, I was awarded the BERA Public Engagement and Impact Award for work in computing education. To respond to the award, I wrote this short article, which was published in BERA's termly magazine, Research Intelligence, Spring 2018. Every time we turn on the TV or radio we hear of a new innovation in… Continue reading Computing in the Curriculum: Identifying and responding to the challenges
GCSE computer science – can we look at “why” before we talk about “hard”
Today the latest TRACER report from Peter Kemp and colleagues was published. It's excellent that the team have done so much digging into the data to be able to contrast different groups and show us where students are likely to be taking GCSE computer science and A Level. Some good news: "Increasing numbers of schools… Continue reading GCSE computer science – can we look at “why” before we talk about “hard”
New book on computer science education!
Computer Science Education: Perspectives on Learning and Teaching at School is a new book edited by Sue Sentance, together with Carsten Schulte, University of Padeborn and Erk Barendsen, Radboud University, Nijmegen. Bringing together international experts in the field of computer science education in school this book will be useful both for students studying to become computing… Continue reading New book on computer science education!
Sue Sentance 