- Principal Research Associate
- Director of the Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre
I’m an experienced educator, researcher and leader in computing education, committed to making computing accessible to learners and teachers globally. I have published widely on the teaching of programming, teacher professional development, physical computing and curriculum change over the last fifteen years, and am also a regular speaker at computing education events and conferences.
The Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre was established in July 2021 and is based in the Department of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge. The Centre is a joint initiative between the University and the Raspberry Pi Foundation and offers an exciting opportunity to combine expertise from across both institutions to deliver a step-change in computing education. The Centre seeks to achieve long-term impact by conducting original research as well as working with its partners to turn new research results into practice, including by working closely with the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s educational programmes.
The aim of the Centre is to increase our understanding of teaching and learning computing, computer science, and associated subjects, with a particular focus on young people who are from backgrounds that are traditionally under-represented in the field of computing or who experience educational disadvantage.
More information about the Centre can be found at http://computingeducationresearch.org. I'm excited to be leading this initiative.
If you are interested in studying for a PhD in comptuting education at the school level, we have studentships available.
Biography
I joined the Department in October 2021 as Director of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, part-time initially and now full-time. Since gaining a PhD in Artificial Intelligence in Education in 1993, I have worked as a teacher of computer science, teacher educator, university lecturer and researcher. I was also the Chief Learning Officer at the Raspberry Pi Foundation until April 2023. From 2018 - 2023 I played a leading role in the DfE-funded National Centre for Computing Education particularly around the development of the Computing Curriculum, Ada Computer Science, and online teacher professional development courses. I was also the strategic lead (PI) for the £2m DfE-funded Gender Balance in Computing research programme (2019-2023). In my own research, I developed an approach to structuring programming lessons called PRIMM (Predict-Run-Investigate-Modify-Make), which has proved useful to many teachers around the UK and beyond.
The 2nd edition of my (with colleagues) edited text book for prospective computer science educators and researchers: Computer Science Education: Perspectives on Teaching and Learning in School was published in February 2023.
Research
My research interests are:
- Computing education for K-12 (school-aged children)
- Teaching and learning of programming
- Physical computing
- Making computing inclusive and accessible to all
- AI education for young people
- Teacher professional development for computing
I am interested in supervising PhD students in these areas. Please contact me if you'd like to discuss this.
Teaching
Current PhD students
- Laurie Gale, Debugging in Programming Education
- Salomey Afua Addo, AI Education in schools
- Carrie Anne Philbin. AI Education in schools
- Carrie Anne Philbin, AI Education in schools
