What's the problem?: teachers' experience of student learning successes and failures

This paper opens the classroom door to provide insight into factors that shape tertiary computer science teachers' experience of (and engagement with) student learning success and failure. This topic is explored through phenomenographic analysis of teacher narratives dealing with frustration and success in facilitating learning for their students. Three themes related to learning are explored which highlight different aspects of the learning situation, namely, students, environment, and responsibility. Using these themes as a focus reveals great diversity in the manner in which teachers experience student learning difficulties and approaches to resolving them. The results provide computer science academics with a framework within which to discuss and contrast their values and assumptions and understand their implications for teaching practice.