Maria Knobelsdorf

Computer science/informatics in secondary education

Computer Science (CS) Education research, specifically when focusing on secondary education, faces the difficulty of regionally differing political, legal, or curricular constraints. To date, many different studies exist that document the specific regional situations of teaching CS in secondary schools. This ITiCSE working group report documents the process of collecting, evaluating, and integrating research findings about CS in secondary schools from different countries. As an outcome, it presents a category system (Darmstadt Model), as a first step towards a framework that sup-ports future research activities in this field and that supports the transfer of results between researchers and teachers in CS education (CSE) across regional or national boundaries. Exemplary application of the Darmstadt model shows in several important categories how different the situation of CSE in secondary education in various countries can be. The Darmstadt Model (DM) is now ready for discussion and suggestions for improvement by the CSE-community.

Out of our minds: a review of sociocultural cognition theory

Theories of mind are implicitly embedded in educational research. The predominant theory of mind during the latter half of the twentieth century has focused primarily on the individual mind in isolation, context-free problem-solving and mental representations and reasoning, what we refer to as cognitivism. Over the last two decades, CS Education researchers have begun to incorporate recent research that extends, elaborates and sometimes challenges cognitivism. These theories, which we refer to collectively as sociocultural cognition theory, view minds as cultural products, biologically evolved to be extended by tools, social interaction and embodied interaction in the world. Learning, under this perspective, is viewed as tool-mediated participation in the ongoing practices of cultural communities. In this paper, we pursue three goals. First, we provide a summary of the key principles in sociocultural cognition theory, placing this theory within a historical context with respect to the cognitive theories that it extends and challenges. Second, we integrate across different but related research efforts that all fall under the sociocultural cognition umbrella, using a uniform terminology for describing ideas represented within different discourse communities. And third, we reference a number of canonical sources in sociocultural cognition theory so as to serve as an index into this diverse literature for those wanting to explore further.

Teaching theoretical computer science using a cognitive apprenticeship approach

High failure rates in introductory courses on theoretical computer science are a common problem at universities in Germany, Europe, and North America, as students often have difficulties coping with the contents of such courses due to their abstract and theoretical nature. This paper describes modifications to the pedagogy of a theory course held at the University of Potsdam, Germany that are motivated by a cognitive apprenticeship approach and have led to a significant reduction of the courses failure rates. Since our approach is based on the typical infrastructure for teaching introductory computer science courses and does not require additional expenses or special resources, it can be replicated by other institutions. We believe that it is a serious contribution to better support teaching as well as student learning success in this field.

Understanding computing stereotypes with self-categorization theory

The partly completed study presented in this paper explores characteristics of stereotypes in Computer Science. The study describes student autobiographical essays about computing, analyzed with particular attention to the ways in which students use computing stereotypes. We describe how self-categorization theory, taken from the psychology stereotype literature, might explain the essays we see and discuss potential implications of self-categorization theory on CS Education in general.

Computer Science Education in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany—A Case Study

In North-Rhine Westphalia, the most populated state in Germany, Computer Science (CS) has been taught in secondary schools since the early 1970s. This article provides an overview of the past and current situation of CS education in North-Rhine Westphalia, including lessons learned through efforts to introduce and to maintain CS in secondary education. In particular, we focus on the differential school system and the educational landscape of CS education, the different facets of CS teacher education, and CS education research programs and directions that are directly connected with these aspects. In addition, this report offers a rationale for including CS education in general education, which includes the educational value of CS for students in today’s information and knowledge society. Through this article, we ultimately provide an overview of the significant elements that are crucial for the successful integration of CS as a compulsory subject within secondary schools.

Addressing the Full Range of Students: Challenges in K-12 Computer Science Education

While computer science is firmly established in higher education, introducing and maintaining CS as a regular K-12 subject remains a major challenge. From a pedagogical perspective, this requires adapting the curriculum to students at widely varying levels of cognitive development and training teachers to enable both knowledge construction and competency development.

The Theory Behind Theory - Computer Science Education Research Through the Lenses of Situated Learning

This paper introduces key characteristics of the situated learning approach and discusses from that perspective questions of pedagogy and educational research in Theory of Computation. This discussion exemplifies how a change in learning theories alters the unit of analysis, thus reframing research questions and potential answers. In its conclusion, this paper provides an outlook on potential research questions in secondary Computer Science Education.

The reasons might be different: why students and teachers do not use visualization tools

In this paper, we address the problem that despite the fact that visualization tools are one of the most investigated research fields in Computer Science Education, most teachers and students neglect utilizing existing visualization tools for teaching and learning programming, respectively. We discuss possible reasons for the problem mentioned above as well as directions for future research based on Activity Theory, a theoretical framework from developmental psychology. Therefore, this is a philosophical paper, with the purposes of briefly presenting those aspects of Activity Theory that are most relevant to the development of program visualization tools, and pursuing the implications of this theory for deepening our understanding of how these tools impact teaching and learning.

A computing education approach for geography students in context of GIS

We present an educational design for an undergraduate university course meant to engage Geography majors with computing and computational thinking. For that matter, we use the pedagogical principle of contextualization, relating computing topics to the discipline of Geography using climate change modeling with geographic information systems as a context. Following a design-based research approach, we first present considerations and arguments that form the basis for our educational design, and then discuss initial results of implementing and teaching a corresponding course to Geography Education majors.

Was macht Theoretische Informatik so schwierig? Ergebnisse einer qualitativen Einzelfallstudie

Dieser Artikel stellt eine qualitative Einzelfallstudie vor, die als nicht-teilnehmende Beobachtung gestaltet war und in der untersucht wurde, wie drei Informatik Bachelorstudierende einen Reduktionsbeweis zu Unentscheidbarkeit mit Turing-Maschinen entwickeln. Für die Datenanalyse wurde eine angepasste Version der Interaktionsanalyse sowie qualitative Inhaltsanalyse eingesetzt. Die beobachteten Studierenden hatten zwar das grundsätzliche Konzept eines Reduktionsbeweises verstanden, konnten diesen jedoch nicht im Detail umsetzen sowie die gemeinsam besprochenen Ergebnisse und Ansätze formal korrekt niederschreiben. Die Ergebnisse geben damit einen detaillierten Einblick, wie sich Bachelorstudierende der Informatik mit einem Teilthema der Theoretischen Informatik auseinandersetzen und welche Schwierigkeiten sie dabeihaben. Dieses Ergebnis zeigt, dass häufig genutzte Annahmen über die Gründe, warum Studierende Schwierigkeiten mit Theoretischer Informatik haben, wie z.B. ein mangelndes Interesse durch das abstrakte und theoretische Erscheinungsbild dieser Fachrichtung, hinterfragt und neu untersucht werden müssen.