Papers

Anyone can propose a paper for discussion on teaching and learning Computer Science. The list of papers we’ve discussed at the bottom of this page will give you an idea of the kind of topics we cover, alongside conferences and other places you can look for better quality publications.

The scientific literature gives “some account of the present undertakings, studies, and labours of the ingenious in many considerable parts of the world”. The literature on learning is vast and daunting but reading one new paper per month is an achievable target that will help you understand the state of the art, wherever you are. CC BY image of the frontispiece for the first volume of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society published in the 17th Century [1] by Henry Oldenburg on Wikimedia Commons w.wiki/6ezK adapted using the Wikipedia app.

Reading one (or one more) paper per month is an achievable target for most people. If there are papers you think our community should be reading and deserve more attention, you can nominate them for discussion using the procedure described below.

Nominate a paper for discussion

Anyone can nominate papers for discussion by:

We look for papers that do some or all of the following:

  • investigate important issues in computer science education, particularly in a University setting or post-18 setting
  • offer advice or insight that can quickly be tested or put into practice
  • provoke lively discussion and debate

Papers we’ve already discussed are listed below.

Papers we’ve discussed previously

Since starting during lockdown in 2020 we’ve had 42 monthly meetings discussing the papers listed below:

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

We’re agnostic to specific conference venues, journal publications and books, but the suggestions below are a good place to start for the latest research in Computer Science Education.

Relevant conferences

There are plenty of conferences in this space including:

  • Computing Education Practice (CEP) held annually in Durham, UK cepconference.webspace.durham.ac.uk
  • United Kingdom and Ireland Computing Education Research (UKICER) ukicer.com
  • International Computing Education Research Conference (ICER) icer.acm.org
  • SIGCSE technical symposium, the ACMs big bash held annually in North America since 1970, sigcse.org/events
  • Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE) iticse.acm.org
  • KOLI Calling, named after its venue, the Hotel Koli in Finland kolicalling.fi
  • ACM CompEd, a global computing education conference comped.acm.org
  • etc

Relevant journals

Some journals of interest include:

Relevant books

We sometimes discuss book chapters, if they are short enough to cover in a fifty minute meeting, for example:

Beyond Computer Science, there are plenty of more general books on education which are relevant and useful including:

Amy J. Ko’s Computing Education Research FAQ provides a useful summary of the field, important people and their research.

Are you lost? Looking for a map? You might find this handbook useful:

The Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research [1] provides a thorough overview of computer science education that is “informative, inspiring, and overwhelming.” [2]

References

  1. Oldenburg, Henry (1665) An introduction to this tract, Philosophical Transactions, Volume 1, Issue 1, DOI:10.1098/rstl.1665.0002 The Royal Society of London for improving Natural Knowledge
  2. Fincher, Sally and Anthony Robins (2019) The Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research, DOI: 10.1017/9781108654555 ISBN:9781108654555, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK
  3. Lewis, Colleen M.; Bell, Tim; Blikstein, Paulo; Carter, Adam S.; Falkner, Katrina; Fincher, Sally A.; Fisler, Kathi; Guzdial, Mark; Haden, Patricia; Hejazi Moghadam, Sepehr; Horn, Michael S.; Hundhausen, Christopher; Ko, Amy J.; Lancaster, Thomas; Loui, Michael C.; Margulieux, Lauren; Porter, Leo; Robins, Anthony; Ryoo, Jean J.; Shah, Niral; Shapiro, R. Benjamin; Shephard, Kerry; Simon, Beth; Tissenbaum, Mike; Utting, Ian; Vahrenhold, Jan; Yadav, Aman (2020). The Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research Summarised in 75 minutes in SIGCSE ’20: Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 323–324. doi:10.1145/3328778.3366988.
  4. Sentance, Sue; Erik Barendsen, Nicol R. Howard and Carsten Schulte (2023) Computer Science Education: Perspectives on Teaching and Learning in School, 2nd edition, ISBN: 9781350296909 Bloomsbury Publishing
  5. Biggs, John and Tang, Catherine (2011) Teaching for Quality Learning at University, Open University Press, ISBN:9780335242757, 4th edition
  6. Bayne, Siân; Evans, Peter; Ewins, Rory; Knox, Jeremy; Lamb, James; Macleod, Hamish; O’Shea, Clara; Ross, Jen; Sheail, Philippa and Sinclair, Christine (2020) The Manifesto for Teaching Online, DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11840.001.0001 ISBN:9780262539838, The MIT Press