@article{harper_tran_cooper_2024, title={Conceptual Metaphor Theory in Action: Insights into Student Understanding of Computing Concepts}, DOI={10.1145/3626252.3630812}, abstractNote={Metaphors are deeply embedded in the language of computing, from 'stacks' and 'queues' to 'trees' and 'handshaking'. Such metaphorical expressions not only shape but also fundamentally reflect our understanding and conceptualization of computing concepts. Students' descriptions of computing concepts have also been shown to be richly metaphor-laden, often framing abstract notions in more tangible or accessible ways. The rich metaphorical conceptualizations set the stage for a natural application of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) in computing education research. At its core, CMT posits that metaphors are not just linguistic expressions but fundamental structures of understanding, influencing how we perceive and think about the world.}, journal={PROCEEDINGS OF THE 55TH ACM TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM ON COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION, SIGCSE 2024, VOL. 1}, author={Harper, Colton and Tran, Keith and Cooper, Stephen}, year={2024}, pages={463–469} }
 @article{wang_bacher_isvik_limke_sthapit_shi_tabarsi_tran_catete_barnes_et al._2023, title={Investigating the Impact of On-Demand Code Examples on Novices' Open-Ended Programming Projects}, url={https://doi.org/10.1145/3568813.3600141}, DOI={10.1145/3568813.3600141}, abstractNote={Background and Context: Open-ended programming projects encourage novice students to choose and pursue projects based on their own ideas and interests, and are widely used in many introductory programming courses. However, novice programmers encounter challenges exploring and discovering new ideas, implementing their ideas, and applying unfamiliar programming concepts and APIs. Code examples are one of the primary resources students use to apply code usage patterns and learn API knowledge, but little work has investigated the effect of having access to examples on students’ open-ended programming experience. Objectives: In this work, we evaluate the impact of code examples on open-ended programming, through a study with 46 local high school students in a full-day coding workshop. Method: We conducted a controlled study, where half of the students had full access to 37 code examples using an example browser system called Example Helper and the other half had 5 standard, tutorial examples. Findings: We found that students who had access to all 37 code examples used a significantly larger variety of code APIs, perceived the programming as relatively more creative, but also experienced a higher task load. We also found suggestive evidence of a better post-assignment performance from the example group, showing that some students were able to learn and apply the knowledge they learned from examples to a new programming task.}, journal={PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2023 ACM CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL COMPUTING EDUCATION RESEARCH V.1, ICER 2023 V1}, author={Wang, Wengran and Bacher, John and Isvik, Amy and Limke, Ally and Sthapit, Sandeep and Shi, Yang and Tabarsi, Benyamin T. and Tran, Keith and Catete, Veronica and Barnes, Tiffany and et al.}, year={2023}, pages={464–475} }