Learning computer science: perceptions, actions and roles

This phenomenographic study opens the classroom door to investigate teachers’ experiences of students learning difficult computing topics. Three distinct themes are identified and analysed. Why do students succeed or fail to learn these concepts? What actions do teachers perceive will ameliorate the difficulties facing students? Who is responsible, and for what, in the learning situation? Theoretical work on threshold concepts and conceptual change deals with mechanisms and processes associated with learning difficult material [Meyer, J. and Land, R., 2005. Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (2): epistemological considerations and a conceptual framework for teaching and learning. Higher Education, 49 (3), 373–388; Entwistle, N., 2007. Conceptions of learning and the experience of understanding: thresholds, contextual influences, and knowledge objects. In: S. Vosniadou, A. Baltas and X. Vamvakoussi, eds. Re-framing the conceptual change approach in learning and instruction. Amsterdam, The Netherl...