What do I do?

I am a programming teacher and a computing education researcher. Computing education research (CER) is a branch of discipline-based education research. No, that doesn’t involve raps across the knuckles.

My background is in computer science. In recent years, I have been drawn towards research on education, especially computing education research. I draw on theories of education and psychology as I teach and as research the teaching and learning of programming.

In my spare time, I enjoy pinches of salt, calling kettles black, and writing footnotes.

Research

My research interests within CER include: the learning and teaching of introductory programming (especially at the university level), learners’ understandings of programming concepts, cognitive approaches to CER, program visualization, phenomenography, and learning environments and tools.

For a list of my publications, please see my Google Scholar profile.

I am part of the Learning + Technology research group.

Selected projects

• a new introductory programming course, which is also available to students outside of Aalto
• a number of development initiatives in the context of Aalto Online Learning (A!OLE)
• Associate Editor for the journal Computer Science Education; Senior Program Committee at ACM International Computing Education Research (ICER) conference
• working towards better teaching at Aalto as a member of SCITEC
• co-teaching CS-E4210 Learning Technologies and CS-C2120 Ohjelmointistudio 2
• my 2012 doctoral thesis: Visual Program Simulation in Introductory Programming Education.