FAQ on how to get started in Computing Education Research: A Dagstuhl Seminar Outcome

At the recent Dagstuhl seminar on CS Ed, Amy Ko started an FAQ — what someone wanting to get started in computing education research needs to know.  She’s released it now (with lots of contributors and reviewers). I highly recommend it!

Computing education research (CER) is the study of how people learn computing and the invention of better ways to teach computing. Read this FAQ end to end to learn more about the field and how you might contribute to it.

What is computing education research?

First, CER is not teaching. Teaching is helping people acquire knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs. Research is discovering truth and inventing solutions. Teachers teach computing, whereas computing education researchers discover what is true about the teaching and learning of computing, and invent new techniques for teaching and assessing it (some pedagogical, some computational). It’s also important to note that I construe “computing” broadly: it’s not just about programming, or even just about computer science, but also about all of the phenomena surrounding computing (including privacy, security, information ethics, software engineering, etc.). This means that computing education and computing education research can and do cover far more than just learning to code.

Source: Amy Ko | University of Washington