Code & Concept: Exploring Teacher Perspectives on CS Conceptual Pattern Extraction.

The rapid expansion of K-12 computer science (CS) education has outpaced the supply of teachers with formal CS training, leaving many educators to teach outside their expertise. This creates challenges in assessing student understanding and interpreting conceptual growth through code. To address this, we introduce ARCHIE (Assessment and Recognition of Coding Habits for Instructional Enhancement), a system that extracts conceptual patterns from student programs and visualizes them at both individual and class levels. We solicited feedback from 20 K-12 CS teachers regarding their confidence in analyzing code and their perceptions of ARCHIE. Teachers reported that ARCHIE helped make student thinking more visible, supported formative assessment, and showed strong potential to enhance instructional decision-making. These findings suggest ARCHIE could provide valuable support for K-12 CS teachers, particularly those without a computing background.