Determining the scope of the philosophy of computing education.

McDermott, Roger; Daniels, Mats; Brown, John N.A.; Cajander, Åsa

Abstract

There are a number of different approaches to the investigation of teaching and learning within the subject of Computing Education. Many of the advances in pedagogy that have taken place over the past thirty years have been due to careful statistical analysis of empirical data, enhancing the reputation of the subject within the broader Computing discipline. Empirical, qualitative methodologies, of the kinds used extensively in the Social Sciences, have also appeared in the Computing Education literature, often investigating the socio-cultural aspects of the subject. More recently, there has been a proposal to develop a role for philosophical inquiry in Computing Education, which mirrors similar historical developments in Engineering Education. Rather than focus on the quantitative or qualitative analysis of the student experience, philosophical investigation instead relies on the use of conceptual analysis to investigate the detailed semantic content of ideas raised in the practice of computing education, careful analysis of the methodologies used to do such work, and a critique of the assumptions that underlie the subject. In this paper, we investigate ways in which an understanding of the Philosophy of Computing Education can assist research within the subject. We consider how it emerges from basic questions about nature of the subject, its scope, and how it can be applied fruitfully within the discipline.

Citation

MCDERMOTT, R., DANIELS, M., BROWN, J.N.A. and CAJANDER, Å. 2025. Determining the scope of the philosophy of computing education. In ITiCSE 2025: proceedings of the 30th ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education 2025 (ITiCSE 2025), 30 June - 2 July 2025, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. New York: ACM [online], 1, pages 403-409. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1145/3724363.3729049

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: 30th ASM (Association for Computing Machinery) conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education 2025 (ITiCSE 2025)
• Start Date: Jun 30, 2025
• End Date: Jul 2, 2025
• Acceptance Date: Mar 3, 2025
• Online Publication Date: Jun 17, 2025
• Publication Date: Jun 27, 2025
• Deposit Date: Jul 25, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 25, 2025
• Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 1
• Pages: 403-409
• ISBN: 9798400715679
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3724363.3729049
• Keywords: Philosophy of computing education; Conceptual analysis; Methodology; Epistemology; Ontology; Axiology
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2935221