Learning in the computer laboratory is an important component when students learn computer programming. In this article, we analyse empirical data on novice students working in pairs in the laboratory. Using an approach inspired by phenomenography and variation theory, we specifically focus on how students' learning of theory and their learning of practice interact. We found that theory-oriented and practice-oriented actions play different, but complimentary and closely intertwined roles in students' learning. In particular, we discuss that students' frequent switches between practice-oriented and theory-oriented actions create a variation that is helpful for learning. This variation adds to the variation the teacher creates. Finally, we discuss how and why frequent switches are important for the successful learning process and we suggest a couple of ways to make it more likely that students make such switches when working with assignments at the computer.

Appears in: INTED2024 Proceedings Publication year: 2024Pages: 6821-6828ISBN: 978-84-09-59215-9ISSN: 2340-1079doi: 10.21125/inted.2024.1793Conference name: 18th International Technology, Education and Development ConferenceDates: 4-6 March, 2024Location: Valencia, Spain

This invited workshop aims to encourage the participants to do qualitative (or, with another term, non-positivistic) research in STEM Education. The workshop discusses different types of research, how they differ in nature and how various ways of doing research can give results of different natures. Particularly, the workshop will discuss qualitative research, which often is based on data in the form of words, for example collected through interviews or from the participants' own stories. The different stages of a qualitative research project (to collect data, to analyze it (or understand it), and to publish) will be discussed. During most of the workshop, the participants will work practically with data. After the workshop the participants will be capable of seeing the relevance of qualitative research projects and initialize their own projects. Some preparations are recommended before the workshop.

Academic misconduct seems to have increased substantially during the pandemic, with a worldwide upsurge in reported cases. The aim of this project is to construct a framework for helping students engage with issues concerning academic integrity and avoid academic misconduct. This Work-In-Progress paper reports on the construction of a scenario-based framework to investigate the beliefs and attitudes of university stakeholders when confronted with decisions about potential academic misconduct. The framework will be based on using scenarios to spur individual reflections and discussions among the students regarding values related to academic integrity focusing on Uppsala University context. A repository of "misconduct" scenarios related to different cultures, including different views and regulations, is intended to support teachers to develop modules tailored to their current need. The underlying idea is to provide students with an understanding of what constitutes academic misconduct in Uppsala University setting and to help them find honest alternatives when faced with temptations to "cheat". Our view is that students, in general, want to behave honestly, and that this framework will provide a means to help students follow their moral "compass" and avoid dishonest behaviour.

The purpose of this research is to study the perceptions on plagiarism of students from Royal University of Bhutan, College of Science and Technology. This research covers the forms of plagiarism that students practice and the factors that prompt them to practice plagiarism. Among all factors, the relationship between teacher and student seems to be under the limelight where it can clearly be seen in what ways the relationship can influence such practices. It is seen that if a teacher is lenient and does not check the plagiarism in the work done by students, this tends to encourage them to perform more plagiarism. On the other hand, if a teacher is strict and monitors the work of students then it discourages students from practising plagiarism. The students were equally selected from the first year and the final year. This paper depicts how the students' perceptions of plagiarism changed over the years. There can be seen a drastic change in the level of confidence and though all of the students admitted to practising plagiarism, the reasons to do this seem to be different.

In this full research-to-practice paper we study novice programming students learning process in the computer laboratory. Working with laboratory assignments is an important component when students learn to program. Here the assignments are intended to help students consolidate theoretical understanding and simultaneously train practice. However, it has been observed that the learning outcome of such laboratory sessions often is unsatisfactory. In this article we ask the question "How do novice students go about learning in the computer laboratory?" We analyse empirical data on novice students working in pairs in the laboratory, which is common in a first programming course. The data consists of video films of students where they discuss and solve programming problems, screen captures of what the students typed during the same laboratory session, and stimulated recall interviews with the students after the laboratory session. In the analysis we use an approach inspired by phenomenography and variation theory. We specifically focus on typical stages in the learning process when students learn in the programming laboratory. In doing so we have identified successful and less successful learning paths, where variation can play different roles. The stages identified in students’ learning process are I. Students first need to become aware of a lack of clarity. In the data we have identified different ways in which this necessary awareness was trigged; II. If, and in that case how, they resolve the lack of clarity. In all the stages we found successful and less successful ways in which students’ handle the situations. We illustrate the stages and discuss how and why variation may play different roles in the different stages of students’ learning, specifically focusing of the unsuccessful learning paths. Lastly, we discuss what these findings can tell us about how programming labs could be designed to promote learning in terms of helping students to avoid the unsuccessful paths identified.

The Covid-19 pandemic has posed major challenges for the education sector worldwide. Face-to-face university courses have to be taught online. University instructors have faced significant difficulties in creating a student-centered learning (SCL) environment online. The aim of this study was to investigate the major challenges of creating student centered learning in Thailand and focused on a population of college instructors attending Thai EASTEM webinar on “Student-Centered Learning in Internet-Based (online) Teaching”, offered in year 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. The aims of this webinar series aimed to provide information on student-centered online learning, how to effectively conduct SCL-based online classes and strategies for better assessments in online learning. There were more than 1000 participants attending all three webinars. The online questionnaire was designed to gather information required by the study. Both quantitative and qualitative were analyzed according to emerging aspects of the online learning activity including learning goals, tools & resources, roles and assessment. As results, most instructors had concerned about fairness and honesty in online assessment, how to create SCL online teaching and students' skills in using computer for online learning and students' readiness in terms of equipment. The study findings are of great use in areas of education development in higher institutes of learning. The findings are also of considerable value in creating SCL online learning environment for college teaching in a digital era and adaptation of instructors towards new way of teaching and learning.

It might be a challenge for a STEM researcher to engage in research that is not directly relevant to his or her own field of specialization. The CUP EASTEM course, described in this paper, aims to support academic Asian STEM teachers in overcoming the challenge of researching their own teaching practices. In this paper we discuss, with CUP EASTEM, as a case study, how we have supported academic STEM teachers to take the steps needed to conduct research on their own teaching practices. The key is to broaden the perspective to also include theoretically sound, qualitative interpretative research. Furthermore, this is a journey that must be made without losing sight of the object of the students' learning, that is, the fundamental concepts within the STEM disciplines.

This work-in-progress research discusses the impacts of the student exchange program on Bhutanese Information Technology exchange students. Student exchanges are common among various academic institutions to enhance competency, collaboration, and cultural exchange. For example, an exchange program between the College of Science and Technology, Royal University of Bhutan, Bhutan, a young developing institution, and Uppsala University, Sweden, an old, established university, has witnessed successful bilateral partnerships since 2016. Both partners see the exchange program as fruitful. However, the researchers have not yet researched the outcome of the program on the students. Therefore, in this case study, we study and discuss the influence of the exchange program on the Bhutanese exchange students in this paper. We collected the data from several semi-structured interviews and analyzed the transcripts qualitatively. We asked each student five guiding questions and several follow-up questions. The responses were discussed and jointly investigated by the three first authors. We concluded that studying abroad helps the students to develop in many fields. In this paper, we describe their general experiences, challenges, and growth as perceived by them. Furthermore, the study revealed how the differences between the environments proved to be constructive for the students, as the program contributed to the growth of students, including skills and knowledge.

Computing Education Research (CER) is an example of Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER) that has developed substantively over the last few decades. This is especially true for the Uppsala Computing Education Research Group (UpCERG). In this paper, we use UpCERG as a lens to see how a conscious use of theory can enhance the quality of STEM education. This is accomplished through presenting our use of the concept “theory” in the paper and by using the theses produced by the group as a way to illustrate the increased importance of theoretical development.

This research to practice work-in-progress paper discusses some environmental and background factors that motivate the IT students of the College of Science and Technology (CST), Royal University of Bhutan (RUB), to learn programming. Programming is gaining popularity in Bhutan, especially due to the increasing number of opportunities in the IT field. CST is one of the few colleges at RUB providing IT courses to students pursuing undergraduate degrees. Previous studies have revealed that the competence and enthusiasm of first year IT Engineering students at RUB differ between individuals when it comes to learning programming, but the reasons for this are still to be determined. In this paper, we explore factors that influence students of CST to learn programming and what can be done by the college to instil more enthusiasm to learn to program. In this case study, a qualitative research methodology was used to analyse the experiences and opinions of eight IT students of CST. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and their responses were discussed and jointly analysed by the first three authors. The study revealed several factors such as knowing about future opportunities in IT and partaking in or wanting to partake in activities, social groups and other study related resources which were related to the students' motivation and their encouragement within their studies. Dissimilarities in the attitude towards programming were noted in students despite them having access to the same lecturers, college facilities and other activities. The findings also showed a correlation between the interest in IT and having family or friends engaged in IT related occupations. The study also found that students sometimes felt demotivated by certain factors, such as the initial difficulty of programming, especially among students without prior experience of programming. A similar feeling of discouragement was described when students felt that their peers performed better than them in classes and examinations.

Student-Centered Learning (SCL) is a way to motivate students to learn, which in this project is applied to STEM education at university level. This paper presents experiences with running a project based on a theory-driven approach to inspire change towards SCL in three Asian countries. The ultimate aim with the project is that the students develop relevant professional competencies in their STEM subjects.

This WiP paper discusses difficulties, but also gains, in starting new collaborations, mainly when the universities differ: different natures of their strengths and weaknesses, acting in different contexts and having different international recognitions. At the same time, it is the differences that make exchanges fruitful and opens for new learning experiences. An example of such a collaboration between asymmetric partners can be found in the Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University, Sweden and College of Science and Technology, Royal University of Bhutan.

It often happens that some students come to engage in their learning, and in the learning of their peers, far beyond what we, or they, would have expected. There is also ample evidence of the opposite experience, where students, even if initially highly motivated, end up unable to engage in a meaningful manner. In this paper, we analyse three courses in order to better understand why the level of student engagement varies to such a high degree, with the aim of opening for seeing underlying factors explaining this. Further, we illustrate and discuss our framework with empirical data collected from at Uppsala University. We study the courses using different research approaches (or perspectives), based in the sociocultural tradition, namely Activity Theory (as described by Engeström), Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky), and Communities of Practice (Lave & Wenger). These approaches serve as lenses with the aim of finding common factors in the learning environments that are collectively created by the students and their teachers during the extent of the courses. Our results point towards the need to establish a joint understanding between students and teachers at several different levels: at a course level in terms of the aim of a course and its possible outcomes, but also personal aims related to what the course could lead to for everyone involved. Further, our research suggests that the supporting and scaffolding role of the teacher is crucial to the development of a positive learning environment in a course.

Scholars have argued that there is no simple definition for research due to a wide variety of disciplines and educational contexts; how students are involved in research may vary a lot with a discipline, and with national and regional curricula within a particular discipline. The present study advances autoethnographic accounts of two Bhutanese students' participation in research. The context of participation is their exchange period, and specifically their attendance at a particular Computing Education Research course, at Uppsala University. The autoethnographic epiphanies that our report suggest transformations in perspective as to what research is and what it may provide personally. The students coauthored the present paper, which, we hope, helped in generating a plausible autoethnographic text, while manifesting their continued interest in research.