This post has been reproduced from the Social Science Space Blog published in January 2018: https://www.socialsciencespace.com/2018/01/coding-school-research-needed-computing-accessible-children/ Coding. It's the new ‘must have’ skill - there are opportunities for us to learn this everywhere, with online courses, workshops, books and magazines abounding. In school, coding has also become a focus. When computing replaced ICT as part of… Continue reading ‘Coding’ in School? Research Needed to make Computing Accessible to All Children
Category: computer science education
IT and Computing education in Guyana
Guyana is a small country (size of UK) in the north of South America bordering Venezuela, Brazil and Suriname. However in many ways it associates itself with the Caribbean - for example, students take Caribbean GCSEs - called the CSEC. In terms of computing in school, students can take the CSEC in IT and this… Continue reading IT and Computing education in Guyana
A continuum of scaffolding: from copying code to tinkering
Jane Waite, of King's College London & Queen Mary University of London, is researching ways of teaching programming, with the ultimate goal of supporting primary teachers teaching programming. In this post Jane describes a continuum of programming that she uses in training with primary teachers (CAS London run a number of Diving Deep courses in… Continue reading A continuum of scaffolding: from copying code to tinkering
Bebras Cards
The Bebras Computing Challenge introduces computational thinking to students. It is organised in 50 countries and designed to get students all over the world excited about computing. It runs online every November, is free to enter and you can enter as many students in your school as you like. See http://bebras.uk for more information. This… Continue reading Bebras Cards
PRIMM: A structured approach to teaching programming
PRIMM is one approach that we hope can help teachers structure lessons in programming. It is based on research into the learning of programming but combines different areas. Our overall interpretation of the research is that teaching programming requires a blended approach using a range of strategies. PRIMM stands for the following: Predict Run Investigate… Continue reading PRIMM: A structured approach to teaching programming
How do you teach with the BBC micro:bit?
At King's College London we are pleased to host a visiting researcher, Filiz Kalelioğlu, from Turkey, who is researching pedagogy and the BBC microbit. Physical computing is fun and engaging, but does it really help students learn, what are the best teaching methods to use with small devices in the classroom, and how can we… Continue reading How do you teach with the BBC micro:bit?
Exploring pedagogies for teaching programming in school
Many teachers are able to recognise that students can find programming difficult and can identify the stages that novice school-aged programmers go through (cf Laura Sach's blog article). However it is not as easy to specify a particular teaching strategy that will support learners in gaining confidence and a deep understanding of programming concepts (moving… Continue reading Exploring pedagogies for teaching programming in school
My PhD: abstraction in primary Computing
Jane Waite: CAS London Project Manager, based at King's College London, has had a poster accepted at WiPSCE 2016. Jane writes: I recently started a part time PhD in the field of Computer Science and Education at Queen Mary University of London; my supervisors are Paul Cuzon and William Marsh at QMUL and Sue Sentance… Continue reading My PhD: abstraction in primary Computing
A holistic approach to teacher professional development in Computing
Recently (12th July 2016), the new standard for teacher professional development was released by the DfE, in conjunction with the Teacher Professional Development Trust. The standard has five underpinning aims: Professional development should have a focus on improving and evaluating pupil outcomes. Professional development should be underpinned by robust evidence and expertise. Professional development should… Continue reading A holistic approach to teacher professional development in Computing
Computer science education research in schools and pedagogy
There is a growing amount of research in computer science education and also a need to be able to describe the key findings to teachers so that it becomes directly relevant in the classroom. In my recent CAS TV appearance I talk about a range of areas of research and how they may be of… Continue reading Computer science education research in schools and pedagogy
Sue Sentance 