Program
Overview of the conference schedule
Program Overview
ISSEP 2026 will take place from 20 to 23 September 2026 at Tallinn University in Estonia.
ISSEP 2026 Programme
Tallinn University, Estonia | 20–23 September 2026
Sunday, 20 September 2026
Doctoral Consortium
| Time | Programme | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 11:00–11:30 | Welcome and orientation | Consortium chair: Valentina Dagienė |
| 13:00–16:00 | Doctoral Consortium Session 1 | Mentoring workshop / research methods clinic |
| 19:00 | Optional informal meetup | Tavern Kochi Aidad |
Monday, 21 September 2026
Main Conference — Day 1: opening, keynote, papers and workshops.
| Time | Programme | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 08:30–09:15 | Registration | Registration desk in the lobby of the Astra building, Narva maantee 29 |
| 09:15–09:30 | Official welcome | Room: A-242 Welcome by the Vice-Rector of Tallinn University and the director of School of Digital Technologies |
| 09:30–10:30 | Keynote talk | Room: A-242 Maria Kütt, Chief HR Officer of Threod Systems: What If We Are Preparing Students for Jobs That Won’t Exist? Rethinking Human Capability in the Age of AI |
| 10:30–11:00 | Coffee breakin Mare atrium | Refreshments and networking |
| 11:00–12:30 | Paper Session 1: Physical vs virtual computing |
Room: A-242 How Teachers Teach Hardware: A Study of Instructional Methods and Practices in K-12 Computing Education Daniel Unro and Andreas Dengel Physical vs. Virtual: Comparing Real-World and Simulated Micro:Bit Environments in Lower Secondary Computer Science Ersin Korkmaz, Thomas Ströhle, Martin Kandlhofer and Philipp Zech Enhancing Cybersecurity Awareness in Vocational Education through Tabletop Exercises: A Multi-School Study Using the INJECT Platform Triin Muulmann and Ricardo Gregorio Lugo Exploring the Digital World: Informatics Learning Intervention for Children Aged 5 to 7 Tabea G. Langen and Nadine Bergner |
| 12:30–14:00 | Lunch | Mare atrium. Posters will be set up for Estonian teachers attending the workshops. |
| 14:00–15:30 |
Workshop Slot A 90 minutes; four parallel workshops |
A1 — “Hearing the Stars”: Is every Informatics teacher a
STEAM teacher?Room M-217
(16 participants) Gabrielė Stupurienė and Anita Juškevičienė - Room M-217 A2 — The IMPACT+ Game: Designing Hybrid Learning Environments for Computational Thinking (16 participants) Bernadette Spieler, Janine Truetsch, Céline Scheier and Larissa Meyer-Baron — Room: M-Eluala (next to catering area, behind the glass wall A3 — What do we mean by ‘Perspectives’ in Informatics Education? (20 participants) Jos Tolboom and Nataša Grgurina — Room: A-428 A4 — From Digital to Tangible: Transforming Computational Thinking Tasks into Unplugged Learning Materials for Primary Education (20 participants) Marika Parviainen and Valentina Dagienė — Room: A-406 |
| 15:30–16:00 | Coffee break | Refreshments and networking |
| 16:00–17:00 |
Workshop Slot B 60 minutes; three parallel workshops |
B1 — Iterative Design of Bebras-Inspired Educational
Cards for Computational Thinking in School
Education
(20 participants) Lidia Feklistova, Marika Parviainen and Daranee Lehtonen — Room: Room M-217 B2 — Hivobu, A Simple Formal Language With A Multi-Level Graphical Approach (20 participants) Jean-Philippe Pellet and Gabriel Parriaux — Room: A-406 B3 — The Human Robot Advanced: Materials and scientific discussion on unplugged material for introductory programming (24 participants) Katharina Brugger and Corinna Mößlacher — Room: M-Eluala (next to catering area, behind the glass wall |
| 17:15–18:00 | Steering Committee Meeting | Room: A-428: |
| 18:00 | Reception at Tallinn University | Mare atrium |
Tuesday, 22 September 2026
Main Conference — Day 2: keynote, paper sessions, posters and conference banquet.
| Time | Programme | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00–10:00 | Keynote talk, room M-218 | Teaching to Think in Informatics Lessons by Genetic
Socratic Method Illustrated by Discovering Hamming
Codes Juraj Hromkovič and Regula Lacher, ETH Zürich |
| 10:00–10:30 | Coffee break and poster session |
Refreshments and networking; poster session in parallel. View the poster titles and authors |
| 10:30–12:00 | Paper Session 2: Psychological aspects in informatics education |
Room M-218: TBC “Left Alone to Implement Digital Education” — Teachers' Perceived Barriers and Support Needs Corinna Hörmann, Marina Unterweger, Sara Hinterplattner and Eva Schmidthaler When Awareness Is Not Enough: Teenagers’ Digital Practices and Implications for Computing Education Corinna Hörmann, Marina Unterweger, Eva Schmidthaler and Barbara Sabitzer Motivated but Overloaded: Cognitive and Motivational Trade-offs in Sandbox-Based Game-Based Learning Daniel Krosse and Alexander Best Opening the Black Box: Concept-Oriented Learning in the Field of Computing Systems Milan Franke and Nadine Bergner |
| 12:00–13:30 | Lunch and poster session |
Mare atrium; poster session in parallel Assessing the Need for AI Literacy Provisions in Small EU States’ Informatics Programmes in the Context of the 2024 EU AI Act’s Risk-Based Framework Diane Vassallo and Nicholas Dalli Adapting British CS-related Teaching Materials for German Primary Education: Insights from Multi-Professional Workshops Jan Strobl, Felix Ziemann, and Torsten Brinda The Chatbot That Asks Back: A Pilot Study in Grade 8 Digital Literacy Anna Yaghobová, Anna Drobná, Evelyn Musilová, and Cyril Brom Computational Thinking Across Education: Developing Micro-Credential Modules for Primary, Secondary, and VET Contexts Bernadette Spieler, Janine Trütsch, Karl Kruusamäe, Melanie Kieber, Martin Kandlhofer, and Harald Burgsteiner But the Carrots are already in the Box, or not? - Teaching Programming Conditions through Unplugged Activities using the Human Robot and Visualizations Katharina Brugger and Corinna Mößlacher MA Students as Co-authors of Course Textbook in Informatics Teacher Education Reelika Väli and Mart Laanpere Integrating Data Science into School Curricula: Concentric Spiral Approach Kairi Osula and Mart Laanpere Exploring High School Students' Mental Models in Quantum Cryptography: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Concept Inventory Development Daniel Krosse and Alexander Best Introducing AI to Young Learners: Design and Evaluation of a Workshop for Primary Education Felix Ziemann, Dominikus Häckel, and Torsten Brinda Montessori and Computational Thinking Steffi Rudel and Christiane Daidrich |
| 13:30–15:00 | Paper Session 3: Gender differences |
Room M-218: TBC Gender Differences in Bebras Challenge Performance Marina Lepp, Piret Luik and Valentina Dagienė COMATH: A Cross-National, Gender-Balanced Instrument for Assessing Computational Thinking Daranee Lehtonen, Esa Satomaa, Marika Parviainen and Valentina Dagiene Who Excels in Spreadsheet Tasks? Examining Gender and Grade-Level Differences Lidia Feklistova and Ljubov Jaanuska Regional Differences in Computational Thinking Skills: Analysing the 2025 Hungarian Bebras Initiative Results Bence Gaál and Zsuzsa Pluhár |
| 15:00–15:30 | Coffee break and poster session |
Refreshments and networking; poster session in parallel. View the poster titles and authors |
| 15:30–17:00 | Paper Session 4: AI in informatics education |
Room M-218: TBC Two-Layered AI Literacy in Schools: How Distributed Responsibilities Separate Use and Understanding Birgy Lorenz and Silver Püvi Stakeholders’ Perspectives on Incorporating AI in the Dutch Informatics Standards Sasja Westgeest, Jos Tolboom, Anco Peeters and Natasa Grgurina Programming to Learn Language Models Luca Chiodini and Matthias Hauswirth Before the Breadboard: Using AI to Scaffold Arduino Algorithm Design in Secondary Schools Diane Vassallo and Gabriella Govus |
| 17:00–18:00 | Free time | |
| 18:30–21:00 | Conference banquet (upon separate pre-registration | Restaurant Olde Hansa , address: Vana turg 1 |
Wednesday, 23 September 2026
Main Conference — final half-day: panel discussion, papers, awards and closing, followed by optional visits and tours.
| Time | Programme | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00–10:00 | Panel discussion, room M-218 |
Innovation in informatics education in the AI era Moderator: Birgy Lorenz, TalTech Participants: Luca Chiodini, Matthias Hauswirth, Andreas Bollin, Diane Vassallo, Gabriella Govus and Jos Tolboom |
| 10:00–10:30 | Coffee break | Refreshments and networking; posters will be removed |
| 10:30–12:00 | Paper Session 5: Computational thinking and mental models |
Chair: Daniel Crosse Dimension-Specific Differences in Computational Thinking across Grades 5–8 Greg Lee and Yi Ling Wu Computational Thinking and Mathematical Word Problem Solving in Primary School Marika Parviainen, Valentina Dagiene, Jake McMullen, Daranee Lehtonen and Jo Van Hoof Student Model Understanding by Shifting Perspective Pedagogy Jan Hendrik Krone and Josua Ginster |
| 12:00–13:00 | Lunch | Mare atrium |
| 13:00–14:00 | Paper Session 6 |
Investigating How Quizzes Shape Problem-Solving Strategies in Elementary Programming Nina Quach, Ahana Ghosh, Man Su, Liina Malva, Danial Hooshyar, Tomohiro Nagashima and Adish Singla From Content to Purpose: Rethinking School Informatics as General Education for All Andreas Bollin The Right Kind of Help: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Feedback Methods in Elementary-Level Visual Programming Ahana Ghosh, Liina Malva, Alkis Gotovos, Danial Hooshyar and Adish Singla |
| 14:00–14:30 | Awards, announcements and official closing | Best paper, poster and presentation awards; ISSEP 2027 handover; closing words |
| From 14:30 | Optional school visits / Tallinn tours |
Choice A: School visit to one of the three schools:
|