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Activity 26: The Computer Science Education Research World
The purpose of the activity is to practice with the prospective computer sci-
ence teachers the reading of research papers in computer science education.
It is suitable especially for prospective computer science teachers who have
not read research papers before and are not familiar with computer science
education research. The activity is based on three stages.
• Stage A: Intuitive thinking on computer science education research, class
discussion
The students are asked to answer the following questions presented to them
by the instructor. Their answers are written on the board.
− In your opinion, what do researchers in computer science education do?
− In your opinion, what questions/issues/topics are researchers in computer
science education interested in?
• Stage B: Planning a research in computer science education, group work
The students are asked to choose one of the questions/issues/topics listed on
the board and to suggest a research plan for its exploration. They can be guid-
ed by suggesting them to relate to questions such as: What would a researcher
do in order to find answers for the said research questions? Which research
tools can be used? What would a researcher do in order to improve his or her
understanding of the said topic?
• Stage C: Class discussion
Each group presents its suggestion. If time allows, it is recommended to dis-
cuss these suggestion and illuminate core research aspects. In this discussion,
however, it is important to remember that (in most cases) the students do not
have a previous research experience in computer science education.
Activity 27: Looking into a Research Work on Novices' Difficulties, Homework
The target of this homework activity is to expose the prospective computer
science teachers to different aspects of novice computer science learners'
mental processes, as they arise from the research papers published in the field.
For this purpose, in this activity, the students read for the first time a research
paper in computer science education.
The topic of novice learners is chosen for this activity because it is impor-
tant that teachers become familiar with novice difficulties and understanding
and since it is reasonable to assume that the prospective computer science
teachers will teach such learners in the future. Further, we should remember
that, in fact, each learner is a novice learner when learning a new topic; from
this perspective, the prospective computer science teachers should be aware
to the fact that even a trivial assignment (for experts) may raise substantial
difficulties for novices and therefore, an in-depth investigation of learners'
conceptions should not be neglected.
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