Associate Professor Dan Hoffman, in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (LTEC), was presented with the Outstanding Research and Theory Accepted Proposal Award at the 2025 (AECT) International Convention for his work with recent LTEC graduate Jessica Chillingworth and current doctoral student Larry Nguyen.
“This recognition reflects the hard work and intellectual curiosity of my students and Hawaiʻi State Department of Education collaborators, and it inspires us to continue pursuing meaningful, high-quality research that can advance our understanding of the role computer science education should play in preparing students in Hawaiʻi to navigate the digital age,” Hoffman said.
Their proposal, “Reshaping the Future: How Early Computer Science Education Influences Student Participation and Achievement,” was based on analyzing enrollment records of more than 3,600 Hawaiʻi public school students and found that requiring a sixth-grade computer science course promoted more equitable participation, making students much more likely to choose to take a computer science elective in seventh-grade.
“We found this was a pattern that seemed to hold for a number of key underrepresented groups,” Hoffman explained. “The results of our study suggest that mandatory early computer science education may be an effective policy tool for boosting enrollment and helping students be more curious about computer science, outcomes that will likely promote digital literacy.”
A member of AECT for a decade, Hoffman has been heavily involved in the international division, serving as its president in 2023–24, chairing the awards committee in 2024–25 and currently serving as the international affiliates liaison for 2025–26. Chillingworth, who graduated last May and was the student speaker at her commencement, has attended and presented at multiple AECT conferences. This was Nguyen’s first AECT conference. Both students presented their own research in addition to the proposal related to the award.
Read the entire story on the .