Nurturing programming talent early is crucial in today's digital world, especially in k-12education, underscored by the rise of programming competitions for younger students. However, with limited research in pro...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9798350348729;9798350348736
Nurturing programming talent early is crucial in today's digital world, especially in k-12education, underscored by the rise of programming competitions for younger students. However, with limited research in programming talent search, discovering programming talent in primary schools posed a significant challenge. Traditionally, various test-based talent search tools have been utilized for programming talent identification, including the Computer Talent Search Test (CTST) and the Beginners Computational Thinking Test (BCTt). Game-based platforms like CodeCombat offer an engaging alternative to overcome this challenge. CodeCombat integrates game-based learning with programmingeducation, allowing students to apply their computational thinking skills in an enjoyable context for learning Python. The study revealed a significant correlation between CodeCombat, CTST, and BCTt outcomes. This highlighted that CodeCombat emerged as a valuable platform for talent search, aligning seamlessly with the objectives of the test-based tools and suggesting its effectiveness in boosting programming learning motivation in primary school.
This Research-to-Practice full paper presents an exploratory study investigating the impact of using a Bee-Bot educational robot simulator to enhance learning sequencing concepts and student motivation among Macao pri...
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In an age of rapid technological development, primary schools now teach programming to young students, focusing on developing their computational thinking, problem-solving, and ability to use computers to create solut...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9798400718083
In an age of rapid technological development, primary schools now teach programming to young students, focusing on developing their computational thinking, problem-solving, and ability to use computers to create solutions. However, fostering computational thinking skills in younger students was a challenging task. The serious game CodeCombat has become a potential resource for instructing young students in primary schools on basic programming principles using Python. This study delved into the role of the serious game CodeCombat in advancing computational thinking competencies among primary school students undertaking Python in Macao. Using a quasiexperimental pretest-posttest approach, we examined 49 grade-one students over a two-week Python programming course facilitated by CodeCombat. The Computational Thinking Scale (CTS), encompassing Creativity, Cooperativity, Algorithmic Thinking, Problem Solving, and Critical Thinking, was employed to measure shifts in computational thinking before and after the teaching experiment. Data analysis through paired-sample t-test highlighted notable progress in computational thinking skills, with marked improvements specifically in Creativity, Critical Thinking, Algorithmic Thinking, and Problem Solving. However, Cooperativity did not exhibit the same upward trend, implying that CodeCombat's impact was more pronounced on solitary cognitive capabilities than collaborative skills. Moreover, the correlation between different dimensions indicated that these computational thinking skills were mutually reinforcing, suggesting that enhancing one might contribute to the development of others. The findings endorsed that game-based learning is effective in programmingeducation and recommended integrating CodeCombat to improve computational thinking in learning Python programming in primary school.
Design-based learning (DBL) environments seem a promising instructional approach to facilitating students' learning of programming concepts via applying them to develop various digital artifacts such as games, web...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781450384889
Design-based learning (DBL) environments seem a promising instructional approach to facilitating students' learning of programming concepts via applying them to develop various digital artifacts such as games, websites, robots, and software applications. However, there is a lack of theory-grounded principles to facilitate DBL environments for programming in k-12. In the absence of such principles, some essential elements of DBL such as the reciprocal link between "design" and "learning" processes might be easily neglected which can sacrifice "learning" in favor of "making" and degrade constructionist-based learning-by-making initiatives in programming to a form of "shallow constructionism" or doing for the sake of making with no significant impact on the students' programmingknowledge. In this study we formulated a set of principles to facilitate DBL environments for learning programming concepts in k-12 while making learning visible in an authentic way (i.e., without breaking the realistic design setting using separate tests), built upon related educational theories and concepts, including Constructionism, scaffolding, Context-based learning, Collaborative learning, and design-based learning. We instantiated these principles to develop a course for learning about algorithms for secondary school students. The developed course was implemented in five secondary schools (with 5 teachers and 87 students) and evaluated based on the experience of the participating teachers and students. The results of the evaluation helped us to reflect on the applicability of the principles and refine them.
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