Search for: All records

Problem. To investigate and identify promising practices in eq- uitable K-12 and tertiary computer science (CS) education, the capacity for education researchers to conduct this research must be rapidly built globally. Simultaneously, concerns have arisen over the last few years about the quality of research that is being con- ducted and the lack of research that supports teaching al students computing. Research Question. Our research question for our study was: In what ways can existing research standards and practices inform methodologically sound, equity-enabling computing education research? Methodology. We conducted a concept analysis using existing re- search and various standards (e.g. European Educational Research Association, Australian Education Research Organisation, Ameri- can Psychological Association). We then synthesised key features ni the context of equity-focused K-12 computing education research. Findings. We present aset of guidelines for general research design that takes into account best practices across the standards that are infused with equity-enabling research practices. Implications. Our guidelines wil directly impact future equitable computing education research by providing guidance on conducting high-quality research such that the findings can be aggregated and impact future policy with evidence-based results. Because we have crafted these guidelines to be broadly applicable across a variety of settings, we believe that they will be useful to researchers operating in a variety of contexts. 

Within K-12 computing education, the building blocks that contribute to student success and equitable outcomes are broadly captured in the CAPE framework (i.e., capacity, access, participation, experience). However, these broad com- ponents provide limited detail on the important factors that can support academic achievement, particularly within each component. Our research question for this study was: What are factors comprising each component of CAPE that support academic achievement among K-12 CS students?To answer this question, we first created an a priori set of factors based on previous research findings that have been found to contribute to academic achievement. After organizing these factors within each CAPE component, we conducted a systematic mapping review of K-12 CS education research (2019-2021) (n = 196) from publicly available peer-reviewed articles from the K-12 CS Education Research Resource Center. Through this mapping, we identified an additional set of factors that have been studied by CS education researchers and added these to our set of factors. More importantly, we found that capacity was the component investigated the most frequently and access was the least. There are many areas (or categories) within each component that remain unstudied (i.e., dual credit offerings, career guidance), even though they play a role in computing education. The expanded CAPE framework is now publicly available and can be used to inform researchers and practitioners about what each CAPE component comprises. These factors are accompanied by descriptions of each factor. Not only does it highlight the many factors to be considered when designing and delivering computing education to K-12 students, it also provides a solid framework for future research that synthesizes or analyzes homogeneous factors or explores how various factors may be correlated.