The different types of contributions to knowledge (in CER): All needed, but not all recognised

Draper, S. and Maguire, J. (2023) The different types of contributions to knowledge (in CER): All needed, but not all recognised. ACM Transactions on Computing Education, 23(1), 7. (doi: 10.1145/3487053)

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Abstract

The overall aim of this paper is to stimulate discussion about the activities within CER, and to develop a more thoughtful and explicit perspective on the different types of research activity within CER, and their relationships with each other. While theories may be the most valuable outputs of research to those wishing to apply them, for researchers themselves there are other kinds of contribution important to progress in the field. This is what relates it to the immediate subject of this special journal issue on theory in CER. We adopt as our criterion for value “contribution to knowledge”. This paper’s main contributions are: • A set of 12 categories of contribution which together indicate the extent of this terrain of contributions to research. • Leading into that is a collection of ideas and misconceptions which are drawn on in defining and motivating “ground rules”, which are hints and guidance on the need for various often neglected categories. These are also helpful in justifying some additional categories which make the set as a whole more useful in combination. These are followed by some suggested uses for the categories, and a discussion assessing how the success of the paper might be judged. These are followed by some suggested uses for the categories, and a discussion assessing how the success of the paper might be judged.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Draper, Dr Steve and Maguire, Dr Joseph
Authors: Draper, S., and Maguire, J.
Subjects:L Education > LB Theory and practice of education
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
Research Group:Centre for Computing Science Education (CCSE)
Journal Name:ACM Transactions on Computing Education
Journal Abbr.:TOCE
Publisher:ACM Press
ISSN:1946-6226
ISSN (Online):1946-6226
Published Online:28 April 2022
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2022 Association for Computing Machinery
First Published:First published in ACM Transactions on Computing Education 23(1): 7
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

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