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

research-article
Relating Spatial Skills and Expression Evaluation
- Jack Parkinson
  University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
  ,
- Quintin Cutts
  University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
  ,
- Steve Draper
  University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
September 2020pp 17-23 https://doi.org/10.1145/3416465.3416473

Work connecting spatial skills to computing has used course grades or marks, or general programming tests as the measure of computing ability. In order to map the relationship between spatial skills and computing more precisely, this paper picks out a ...
abstract
Investigating Spatial Skills in Computing Education
- Jack Parkinson
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
August 2020pp 340-341 https://doi.org/10.1145/3372782.3407109

There is an intriguing connection between spatial skills and CS: those with better spatial skills tend to do better in many CS related tasks. Since spatial skills are malleable, it is tempting to simply introduce spatial skills training courses to ...
research-article
The Effect of a Spatial Skills Training Course in Introductory Computing
- Jack Parkinson
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  ,
- Quintin Cytts
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
June 2020pp 439-445 https://doi.org/10.1145/3341525.3387413

Spatial skills have been associated with STEM success for decades. Research has shown that training spatial skills can have a positive impact on outcomes in STEM domains such as engineering, mathematics and physics; however -- despite some promising ...
short-paper
Addressing mixed levels of prior knowledge by individualising learning pathways in a Degree Apprenticeship Summer School
- Derek Somerville
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
  ,
- Quintin Cutts
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
  ,
- Matthew Barr
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
  ,
- Jack Parkinson
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
January 2020pp 1-5 https://doi.org/10.1145/3372356.3372370

Teaching an introductory programming course is beset by two core challenges: students enter the course with different levels of prior experience; and, for whatever reason, they progress at different rates. This is at odds with a typical face-to-face ...
research-article
Pass Rates in Introductory Programming and in other STEM Disciplines
- Simon
  University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia
  ,
- Andrew Luxton-Reilly
  University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
  ,
- Vangel V. Ajanovski
  Ss Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, Macedonia
  ,
- Eric Fouh
  University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
  ,
- Christabel Gonsalvez
  Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
  ,
- Juho Leinonen
  University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
  ,
- Jack Parkinson
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland Uk
  ,
- Matthew Poole
  University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, England UK
  ,
- Neena Thota
  University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA
December 2019pp 53-71 https://doi.org/10.1145/3344429.3372502

Vast numbers of publications in computing education begin with the premise that programming is hard to learn and hard to teach. Many papers note that failure rates in computing courses, and particularly in introductory programming courses, are higher ...
tutorial
Exploring Spatial Skills and Computing in Primary and Secondary Education
- Jack Parkinson
  University of Glasgow
October 2019pp 1-3 https://doi.org/10.1145/3361721.3362118

This workshop aims to break down the connection between spatial skills and STEM - particularly computing - and highlight existing research of value, presenting an argument for spatial skills instruction in schools. We will discuss known challenges and ...
research-article
Developing a Work-based Software Engineering Degree in Collaboration with Industry
- Matthew Barr
  University of Glasgow
  ,
- Jack Parkinson
  University of Glasgow
September 2019pp 1-7 https://doi.org/10.1145/3351287.3351292

Work-based learning has been in practice in Software Engineering for some time, but only in recent years has it been introduced as a pathway to an honours-level undergraduate degree across the UK. Through the lens of one such scheme, the Graduate ...
poster
Devising Work-based Learning Curricula with Apprentice Research Software Engineers
- Joseph Maguire
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  ,
- Quintin Cutts
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  ,
- Jack Parkinson
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  ,
- Matthew Barr
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  ,
- Derek Somerville
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
July 2019pp 313-313 https://doi.org/10.1145/3304221.3325576

Work-based learning (WBL) is a delivery model that attempts to address the isolation of theory and practice by integrating them into a single programme. The concern is that through lack of experience and understanding, both universities and industry may ...
abstract
Pass Rates in STEM Disciplines Including Computing
- Simon
  University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia
  ,
- Andrew Luxton-Reilly
  University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
  ,
- Vangel Ajanovski
  Ss Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, Macedonia
  ,
- Eric Fouh
  University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
  ,
- Chris Gonsalvez
  Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
  ,
- Juho Leinonen
  University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
  ,
- Jack Parkinson
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  ,
- Matthew Poole
  University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom
  ,
- Neena Thota
  University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA
July 2019pp 267-268 https://doi.org/10.1145/3304221.3325532

Vast numbers of publications in computing education begin with the premise that programming is hard to learn and hard to teach. Many papers note that failure rates in computing courses, and particularly in introductory programming courses, are higher ...
research-article
Experience Report: Thinkathon -- Countering an "I Got It Working" Mentality with Pencil-and-Paper Exercises
- Quintin Cutts
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  ,
- Matthew Barr
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  ,
- Mireilla Bikanga Ada
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  ,
- Peter Donaldson
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  ,
- Steve Draper
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  ,
- Jack Parkinson
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  ,
- Jeremy Singer
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  ,
- Lovisa Sundin
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
July 2019pp 203-209 https://doi.org/10.1145/3304221.3319785

Goal-directed problem-solving labs can lead a student to believe that the most important achievement in a first programming course is to get programs working. This is counter to research indicating that code comprehension is an important developmental ...
research-article
Investigating the Relationship Between Spatial Skills and Computer Science
- Jack Parkinson
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  ,
- Quintin Cutts
  University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
August 2018pp 106-114 https://doi.org/10.1145/3230977.3230990

The relationship between spatial skills training and computer science learning is unclear. Reported experiments provide tantalising, though not convincing, evidence that training a programming student's spatial skills may accelerate the development of ...