Research | TU Dublin

Secondary School Student Research

When we deliver outreach camps, students are surveyed both before and after each session. This data is then analysed to unpack student perceptions, attitudes and confidence and to investigate if the outreach has changed these in anyway (positively or negatively). To date we have over 3,000 student surveys. This research includes a focus on Leaving Certificate students. The research examines the students self-efficacy in programming and the reasons why they chose the subject for the Leaving Certificate.

Secondary School Teacher Research

This research is in the form of pedagogical development and surveys (pre-and-post-CPD) to evaluate the session design. To date, we have over 2100 teacher surveys.

Other types of Research by CSinc

Data Analysis: CS_INC have conducted data analysis for multiple projects. These are all in the space of Educational Data Mining (EDM), where for example, we have worked with Sue Sentence on several papers and projects including the international METRECC study.

Machine Learning and AI: CS_INC have developed specific EDM predictive models using Machine Learning or Deep Learning The expertise in this area, has allowed the development of international models such as PreSS or more recently a project with Maynooth University and Microsoft predicting if students will study STEM going forward.

First Year Drop-in Support: With first-year programming being perceived by students as hard, CS_INC members are setting up a drop in service for first-year student to receive free tutoring on a peer-to-peer level with the hopes that it will increase student confidence. This peer-to-peer model has been shown to work across many other Irish institutes.

Recent Publications

Recent Journal Publications:

CS1: how will they do? How can we help? A decade of research and practice, Computer Science Education, 29:2-3, 254-282, DOI: 10.1080/08993408.2019.1612679

Conference Proceedings:

Comparing Programming Self-Esteem of Upper Secondary School Teachers to CS1 Students. In 26th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE2021), June 26–July 1, 2021, Virtual Event, Germany. ACM

Developing an Open-Book Online Exam for Final Year Students. In 26th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE 2021), June 26–July 1, 2021, Virtual Event, Germany. ACM

The Elusive Metrics -Are We Telling the Full Story in Educational Data Mining?. In26th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE 2021), June 26-July 1, 2021, Virtual Event, Germany. ACM

Measuring the enacted K-12 computing curriculum. In Understanding computing education (Vol 1). Proceedings of the Raspberry Pi Foundation Research Seminar series. (2021)

A Collaborative Online micro:bit K-12 Teacher PD Workshop. In 2020 International Computing Education Research Conference (ICER ’20), August 10–12, 2020, Virtual Event, New Zealand. ACM, New York

Developing an Inclusive K-12 Outreach Model. In Proceedings of the2020 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE ’20), June 15–19, 2020, Trondheim, Norway. ACM

Promoting a Growth Mindset in CS1: Does One Size Fit All? A Pilot Study. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE’20), June 15–19, 2020, Trondheim, Norway. ACM

An International Pilot Study of K-12 Teachers’ Computer Science Self-Esteem. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE ’20), June 15–19, 2020, Trondheim, Norway. ACM

50 Years of CS1 at SIGCSE: A Review of the Evolution of Introductory Programming Education Research. Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education(SIGCSE 2019), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, February 2019. ACM

CSinc: An Inclusive K-12 Outreach Model. In Proceedings of the 19th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli Calling ’19). ACM

Second Level Computer Science: The Irish K-12 Journey Begins. Proceedings of the 18th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (Koli Calling ’18) ACM, Koli, Finland, 2018.

Programming: predicting student success early in CS1. a re-validation and replication study. ITiCSE 2018 Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, 2018

Insights on Gender Differences in CS1: A Multi-institutional, Multi-variate Study. ITiCSE ’17Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, 2017

Selected Publications

Comparing Programming Self-Esteem of Upper Secondary School Teachers to CS1 Students. In26th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE2021), June 26–July 1, 2021, Virtual Event, Germany. ACM

Developing an Open-Book Online Exam for Final Year Students. In2 6th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE 2021), June 26–July 1, 2021, Virtual Event, Germany. ACM