Conducting research in computing education, including computer science and computational thinking, is a relatively new field within primary and secondary education. Compared to subjects like mathematics, reading, and writing that have been taught for decades (or even centuries), this field can learn from the other fields. We can consider how other more mature fields have used research to inform practice as well as how technology can be used to help with research.
We provide several field guides and quick references for designing and implementing research, reporting on the research (within a paper or article), and reviewing articles and papers. Though not fully inclusive of all aspects of research, these guides can serve as a reference and reminder of what is important when conducting and reporting on research studies for primary and secondary education.
Topics currently provided:
- Writing Research Questions
- Writing a Well-crafted Research Question
- Defining What is being Measured
- Defining the Population Group
- Writing Neutral Statements
- Defining a Scope/Timeframe
- Crafting your Abstract
- Structured Abstracts
- Unstructured Abstracts
- Examples
- Choosing an Evaluation Instrument
- Common Steps for Measurement
- Case Studies
- Reviewing Research Articles
- Purpose, Goals, Intent, Clarity
- Study Design
- Activity/Intervention
- Ethics
- Participants
- Data Analysis
- Results
- Reporting Activities and Curriculum
- Recommendations for Reporting Pre-College Computing Activities
- Student Demographics
- Measuring Reliability and Validity of Evaluation Instruments
- Measuring Reliability
- Measuring Validity