Call for Papers

We invite you to submit a paper, report, or poster for the 20th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education (WiPSCE 2026) and to join us in Aachen, Germany.

Research in primary and secondary computing education is a young field with strong ties to national educational systems. Nevertheless, its theories, methods, and results are internationally applicable and of interest to researchers and practitioners in the field. WiPSCE aims at improving the exchange of research and practice relevant to teaching and learning in primary and secondary computing education, teacher training, and related research.

Accepted papers will be published in the WiPSCE 2026 proceedings as part of the ACM International Conference Proceedings Series. The proceedings will be included in the ACM Digital Library (approval pending) .

You can download a PDF version of the "Call for Papers" here: Download CFP.

Important Dates

Topics

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Learning: attitudes, beliefs, motivation, misconceptions, learning difficulties, student engagement with educational technology (e.g., visualization), conceptualization of computing
• Teaching: teaching approaches, teaching methods, teaching with educational technology
• Content: curricular aspects, learning standards, tools, educational approaches, context relevant teaching, assessment
• Institutional aspects: establishing and enhancing computing education, professional development

Submission Guidelines

Original submissions in all areas related to primary and secondary computing education are invited in the following categories:

• Full Paper (6-10 pages). Full papers must be submitted in one of two categories:
  • Empirical Research Paper: Unpublished, original, theoretically anchored research relevant to the topics of the conference. Empirical research papers are expected to be of high quality and present novel arguments, syntheses, results, methods or tools. n addition, the publication of the instruments and data (e.g. on https://osf.io/) is strongly suggested.
  • Theoretical and Philosophical Research Paper: Unpublished, original, theoretically anchored research which includes dissemination and discussion of new ideas, theoretical analyses, or the proposition of an original theory relevant to the topics of the conference.
• Work-in-Progress Paper (3-4 pages). Work-in-Progress papers are expected to present unpublished, original work in progress (as in “not-finished”, e.g. a pilot study) related to empirical or theoretical research relevant to the topics of the conference. A work in progress paper is expected to report first findings. The purpose of this category is to support authors, through presentation and discussion at the conference, to further develop their work. The title of the paper should end with "(Work in Progress)", which will be removed for the final publication.
• Research-in-Practice Report (4-6 pages). Research-in-Practice Reports describe unpublished, original work that investigates the application of research (i.e. theory) in the teaching practice of primary and secondary computing education. To this end, reports are expected to clearly adapt or build upon existing theory and apply it to teaching practice (e.g. in the form of a teaching intervention or curricular initiative). They report the practical experiences from the perspective of a practitioner, and reflect on the findings in light of the underlying theory. The title of the paper should end with "(Research-in-Practice Report)", which will be removed for the final publication.
• Poster Abstract (2 pages). Poster abstracts should present emerging ideas for future research, teaching practice or tools.

When preparing your submission, consider carefully under which category you intend it to be reviewed. We will apply different reviewing criteria to the different categories of submissions, see the Contribution Guidelines and Review Criteria.

In exceptional circumstances only, we may invite the author of a submission that fails to meet the reviewing criteria in one category to present the submission in another category, if we think it is more appropriate in the latter category and we think the submission can be adjusted in a short period of time between notification of acceptance and final camera-ready submission. In other cases, the submission will simply be rejected.

For this reason, it is important to pick the best category for your paper from the outset.

If you are unsure, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Two dates are provided for full paper, work-in-progress paper and research-in-practice peport submissions. The first date is for the abstract only, which does not need to include an uploaded PDF. Abstracts should be around 150-250 words long. The second date is for the actual submission as a PDF. Both dates are final and there can be no extensions.

Submission Format

Submissions are required to follow the style format outlined on the ACM SIG proceedings website for LaTex Authors. The review process will be dual anonymous, so authors are requested not to include their names and affiliations when submitting and to cite their prior work appropriately.

It is mandatory to submit a PDF-file through -- Link to the conference management system follows -- . Please see the Important Dates page for submission and notification deadlines.

When preparing the submission, please read the instructions carefully; do not change fonts or margins and make sure that you only use whitelisted packages:

• ACM Templates

ACM has created a LaTeX template which is to be used in conjunction with the ACM e-Rights System and the ACM CCS 2012 Author Support Tool found in the ACM Digital Library (See instructions under “Generate CCS Codes” top right of http://dl.acm.org/ccs.cfm).

• WiPSCE Template

We provide a modified version of the ACM template that contains all relevant configurations for the WiPSCE submission. It can be downloaded here: Download WiPSCE Paper Template.

An Overleaf template for collaborative use is available in the Overleaf Gallery.

• ACM e-Rights

When authors incorporate the code blocks generated by the ACM e-Rights system and by the CCS 2012 Author Support Tool in these the correct ACM Rights Statement and bibliographic strip automatically appear in the author’s paper along with the proper display of the CCS indexing terms chosen. (And a hidden block of XML encoding will also be incorporated in the source file for extraction use in the ACM Digital Library.)

• ACM Support

ACM has developed a webpage which contains the proceedings templates and CC2012 guide here: http://www.acm.org/publications/article-templates/proceedings-template.html/. In case of problems, please contact ACM’s TeX support team at Aptara (acmtexsupport@aptaracorp.com).

Review Process and Publication

To ensure selection of high quality contributions, submissions for full papers are reviewed by at least three members of the international program committee. Short paper and research-in-practice report submissions and poster abstracts are reviewed by at least two members of the program committee. Reviewing is dual anonymous. Once reviewing is complete, the reviewers (anonymously) discuss their reviews, particularly where there are significant differences of opinion. After the discussion phase, the program chairs use the reviews to determine a balanced and appropriate set of papers to be accepted.

The WiPSCE program committee takes pride in considering submissions thoroughly and providing constructive feedback.

At least one author must register and present accepted papers in order for the paper to be included in the workshop proceedings.

Previous Proceedings

ACM has developed a new webpage which contains the new proceedings templates and CC2012 guide here: http://www.acm.org/publications/article-templates/proceedings-template.html/. In case of problems, please contact ACM’s TeX support team at Aptara (acmtexsupport@aptaracorp.com).

Review Process and Publication

To ensure selection of high quality contributions, submissions for full papers are reviewed by at least three members of the international program committee. Short paper submissions and poster abstracts are reviewed by at least two members of the program committee. Reviewing is dual anonymous. Once reviewing is complete, the reviewers (anonymously) discuss their reviews, particularly where there are significant differences of opinion. After the discussion phase, the program chairs use the reviews to determine a balanced and appropriate set of papers to be accepted.

The WiPSCE program committee takes pride in considering submissions thoroughly and providing constructive feedback.

At least one author must register and present accepted papers in order for the paper to be included in the workshop proceedings.

Previous Proceedings

The proceedings of the previous WiPSCE conferences can be found in the ACM Digital Library