Review and Use of Learning Theories within Computer Science Education Research

Szabo, Claudia; Falkner, Nickolas; Petersen, Andrew; Bort, Heather; Cunningham, Kathryn; Donaldson, Peter J.; Hellas, Arto; Robinson, James B.; Sheard, Judy

doi:10.1145/3344429.3372504

Cited by 28 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…As Gregor [41] explains, theory can be used to analyze phenomena, to explain them, to make predictions about them, and to design subsequent actions. For more discussion on the roles of theories, see Malmi et al [76] and Szabo et al [103].…”

Section: Background and Research Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Theories and Models of Emotions, Attitudes, and Self-Efficacy in the Context of Programming Education

Malmi

Sheard

Kinnunen

et al. 2020

Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research

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Research into the relationship between learning computing and students' attitudes, beliefs, and emotions often builds on theoretical frameworks from the social sciences in order to understand how these factors influence, for example, students' motivation, study practices, and learning results. In this paper we explore the computing education research literature to identify new theoretical constructs that have emerged from this research. We focus on empirical work in programming education that extends or adapts theories or instruments from the social sciences or that independently develops theories specific to programming. From an initial data set of more than 3800 papers published in the years 2010-2019, we identify 50 papers that present a range of domain-specific theoretical constructs addressing emotions, affect, beliefs, attitudes, and self-efficacy. They include 11 validated instruments and a number of statistical models, but also grounded theories and pedagogical models. We summarize the main results of many of these constructs and provide references for all of them. We also investigate how these constructs have informed further research by analysing over 850 papers that cite these 50 papers. We categorize the ways that theories can inform further research, and give examples of papers in each of these categories. Our findings indicate that among these categories, instruments have been most widely used in further research, thus affirming their value in the field. CCS CONCEPTS• Social and professional topics → Computing education.

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Section: Background and Research Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A recent survey by Szabo et al [103] focuses on the use of learning theories used in computing education but developed in other areas. Our work complements this by focusing on theories developed within computing education.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theories and Models of Emotions, Attitudes, and Self-Efficacy in the Context of Programming Education

Malmi

Sheard

Kinnunen

et al. 2020

Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research

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“…The present work contributes beyond Prather et al 's work by going deeper into the theories, how researchers can utilize them in their own studies, and detailed examples of these theories used well in computing education. Szabo et al provide a recent review of theories and their relationships to each other, including metacognition [90]. While their work shows that concepts like metacognition and self-eicacy are related, the present work discusses why they are often related in computing education literature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Metacognition and Self-Regulation in Programming Education: Theories and Exemplars of Use

Loksa

Margulieux

Becker

et al. 2022

ACM Trans. Comput. Educ.

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Metacognition and self-regulation are important skills for successful learning and have been discussed and researched extensively in the general education literature for several decades. More recently, there has been growing interest in understanding how metacognitive and self-regulatory skills contribute to student success in the context of computing education. This paper presents a thorough systematic review of metacognition and self-regulation work in the context of computer programming and an in-depth discussion of the theories that have been leveraged in some way. We also discuss several prominent metacognitive and self-regulation theories from the literature outside of computing education – for example, from psychology and education – that have yet to be applied in the context of programming education. In our investigation, we built a comprehensive corpus of papers on metacognition and self-regulation in programming education, and then employed backward snowballing to provide a deeper examination of foundational theories from outside computing education, some of which have been explored in programming education, and others that have yet to be but hold much promise. In addition, we make new observations about the way these theories are used by the computing education community, and present recommendations on how metacognition and self-regulation can help inform programming education in the future. In particular, we discuss exemplars of studies that have used existing theories to support their design and discussion of results as well as studies that have proposed their own metacognitive theories in the context of programming education. Readers will also find the article a useful resource for helping students in programming courses develop effective strategies for metacognition and self-regulation.

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“…The taxonomy is based on theoretical definitions but takes into account many data-driven approaches. Similar to the review by Szabo et al [148] of learning theories in computing education, this article provides a synthesized overview and associated exemplars to improve the understanding of study behaviors, including how they relate to the educational context. Future research and practice can use this framework to identify terms when designing research projects or educational innovations, and it can serve as a tool for understanding and interpreting published research.…”

Section: Defining Study Behaviors In Computing Education (Rq1)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Study Behavior in Computing Education—A Systematic Literature Review

LoråsMadeleine

SindreGuttorm

TrættebergHallvard

et al. 2021

ACM Trans. Comput. Educ.

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As the field of computing education grows and matures, it has become essential to unite computing education and higher education research. Educational research has highlighted that how students study is crucial to their learning progress, and study behaviors have been found to play an important role in students’ academic success. This article presents the main results of a systematic literature review intended to determine what we know about the study behaviors of computing students and the role of educational design in shaping them. A taxonomy of study behaviors was developed and used to clarify and classify the definitions of study behavior, process, strategies, habits, and tactics as well as to identify their relationship to the educational context. The literature search resulted in 107 included papers, which were analyzed according to defined criteria and variables. The review of study behavior terminology found that the same terms are used to describe substantially different study behaviors, and the lack of standard terminology makes it difficult to compare findings from different papers. Furthermore, it was more common for papers to use study behaviors to explain other aspects of students rather than exploring and understanding them. Additionally, the results revealed a tendency to focus on specific educational contexts, predominantly introductory programming courses. Although computing education as a field is well equipped to expand the knowledge about both study behaviors and their connection to the educational context, the lack of common terminology and theories limits the impact. The taxonomy of study behaviors in computing education proposed in this article can contribute to contextualizing the research in such a way that researchers and educators across institutional borders can compare and utilize results. Last, the article outlines some areas for future research and recommendations for practice.

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Review and Use of Learning Theories within Computer Science Education Research

Cited by 28 publications

References 61 publications

Theories and Models of Emotions, Attitudes, and Self-Efficacy in the Context of Programming Education

Theories and Models of Emotions, Attitudes, and Self-Efficacy in the Context of Programming Education

Metacognition and Self-Regulation in Programming Education: Theories and Exemplars of Use

Study Behavior in Computing Education—A Systematic Literature Review

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