The design and exploration cycle as research and development framework in computing education

Innovative and traditional learning designs like workplace-integrated learning in Industry 4.0, Computer Science Education (CSE) on higher and secondary level and Engineering Education require formative as well as summative approaches of evaluation for their further development or refinement. Educational evaluation of CSE learning scenarios has to take into account different perspectives, e.g. the learning design and especially the competence development processes of the involved stakeholders like learners and teachers. In this paper we discuss research on competence development in the context of CSE and engineering education and the possible support this research might obtain from relying on a theory-grounded research framework. The main contribution of the article is the explication of such a framework, which we have developed and refined based on an analysis of informatics processes. We also present examples where the framework can be used to support research and development of learning and teaching innovations.