Research

My research is based in Computing Science Education, working with the Centre for Computing Science Education (CCSE) team in the Department of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow. My focus is on underlying, usually considered innate, skills which may contribute to aptitude in computing science, specifically looking at the area of spatial skills. Spatial skills have been linked to success in STEM areas for many years, though the relationship with computing science has not been well explored and is more tenuous than other areas like engineering or chemistry.

The purpose of my research is to identify specific factors of spatial skills which appear to be related to computing science and investigate whether the relationship is causal, indicating that training these factors would lead to an increase in computing performance.

In addition to this research, I Was previously employed as a research assistant in the CCSE involved in the Computer Science department's endeavour to deliver Graduate Apprenticeships in 2019. The research is currently focussing on existing research in work based learning and a large scale consultation with both practitioners of existing programmes and industry partners.



Publications

ACM DL Author-ize serviceExploring Spatial Skills and Computing in Primary and Secondary Education
Jack Parkinson
WiPSCE'19 Proceedings of the 14th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education, 2019
ACM DL Author-ize serviceDeveloping a Work-based Software Engineering Degree in Collaboration with Industry
Matthew Barr, Jack Parkinson
UKICER Proceedings of the 1st UK & Ireland Computing Education Research Conference, 2019
ACM DL Author-ize serviceDevising Work-based Learning Curricula with Apprentice Research Software Engineers
Joseph Maguire, Quintin Cutts, Jack Parkinson, Matthew Barr, Derek Somerville
ITiCSE '19 Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, 2019
ACM DL Author-ize servicePass Rates in STEM Disciplines Including Computing
Simon, Andrew Luxton-Reilly, Vangel Ajanovski, Eric Fouh, Chris Gonsalvez, Juho Leinonen, Jack Parkinson, Matthew Poole, Neena Thota
ITiCSE '19 Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, 2019
ACM DL Author-ize serviceInvestigating the Relationship Between Spatial Skills and Computer Science
Jack Parkinson, Quintin Cutts
ICER '18 Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research, 2018