Katharina Weitz, Anja Gärtig-Daugs, Daniel Knauf, Ute Schmid
Preschool teachers play an important role in making complex environments such as technical devices and the computational concepts behind digital devices understandable for children. By creating child-oriented learning environments, they foster the child's understanding. For the selection of treated topics, pedagogical beliefs and self-confidence of preschool teachers play a crucial role. In our field-study we examine the influence of previous computing experiences during on pedagogical beliefs and self-confidence in computer science of future preschool teachers. Our results suggest that pedagogical beliefs are especially important for including computer science as a kindergarten topic. Furthermore, there seems to be a connection between self-confidence of preschool teachers and their experiences with computer science and digital media during their own childhood. Further research has to focus on the causes and mechanisms for changing pedagogical beliefs and self-confidence in computer science, so that more preschool teachers include computer science in their daily work.
{"title":"Computer Science in Early Childhood Education: Pedagogical Beliefs and Perceived Self-Confidence in Preschool Teachers","authors":"Katharina Weitz, Anja Gärtig-Daugs, Daniel Knauf, Ute Schmid","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3144573","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3144573","url":null,"abstract":"Preschool teachers play an important role in making complex environments such as technical devices and the computational concepts behind digital devices understandable for children. By creating child-oriented learning environments, they foster the child's understanding. For the selection of treated topics, pedagogical beliefs and self-confidence of preschool teachers play a crucial role. In our field-study we examine the influence of previous computing experiences during on pedagogical beliefs and self-confidence in computer science of future preschool teachers. Our results suggest that pedagogical beliefs are especially important for including computer science as a kindergarten topic. Furthermore, there seems to be a connection between self-confidence of preschool teachers and their experiences with computer science and digital media during their own childhood. Further research has to focus on the causes and mechanisms for changing pedagogical beliefs and self-confidence in computer science, so that more preschool teachers include computer science in their daily work.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"8 1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125461110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Programming education is in fashion: there are many methods, tools, books and apps to teach children programming. This gives rise to the question of how to teach programming. Do we teach the concepts with or without the use of a computer, also called plugged and unplugged respectively? This paper aims to measure what method is more effective to start with: plugged or unplugged first. Specifically, we are interested in examining which method is better in terms of (1) facilitating understanding of programming concepts, (2) motivating and supporting the students' sense of self-efficacy in programming tasks and (3) motivating the students to explore and use programming constructs in their assignments. To this end we conduct a controlled study with 35 elementary school children, in which half of the children receive four plugged lessons and the other half receives four unplugged lessons After this, both groups receive four weeks of Scratch lessons. The results show that after eight weeks there was no difference between the two groups in their mastering of programming concepts. However, the group that started with unplugged lessons was more confident of their ability to understand the concepts, i.e. demonstrated better self-efficacy beliefs. Furthermore, the children in the unplugged first group used a wider selection of Scratch blocks.
{"title":"To Scratch or not to Scratch?: A controlled experiment comparing plugged first and unplugged first programming lessons","authors":"F. Hermans, Efthimia Aivaloglou","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3137072","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3137072","url":null,"abstract":"Programming education is in fashion: there are many methods, tools, books and apps to teach children programming. This gives rise to the question of how to teach programming. Do we teach the concepts with or without the use of a computer, also called plugged and unplugged respectively? This paper aims to measure what method is more effective to start with: plugged or unplugged first. Specifically, we are interested in examining which method is better in terms of (1) facilitating understanding of programming concepts, (2) motivating and supporting the students' sense of self-efficacy in programming tasks and (3) motivating the students to explore and use programming constructs in their assignments. To this end we conduct a controlled study with 35 elementary school children, in which half of the children receive four plugged lessons and the other half receives four unplugged lessons After this, both groups receive four weeks of Scratch lessons. The results show that after eight weeks there was no difference between the two groups in their mastering of programming concepts. However, the group that started with unplugged lessons was more confident of their ability to understand the concepts, i.e. demonstrated better self-efficacy beliefs. Furthermore, the children in the unplugged first group used a wider selection of Scratch blocks.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116252642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this poster abstract we present the design and evaluation of a simulation and debugging environment for a graphical programming interface. The environment is designed to be used within a physical computing context enabling users to detect errors faster and more efficiently. Finally, we evaluate its effect on learning progress and show a slight difference in the learning curve when learning programming with or without the debugger.
{"title":"Implementation and evaluation of a simulator and debugger for physical computing environments","authors":"Tom Neutens, Juta Staes, F. Wyffels","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3137089","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3137089","url":null,"abstract":"In this poster abstract we present the design and evaluation of a simulation and debugging environment for a graphical programming interface. The environment is designed to be used within a physical computing context enabling users to detect errors faster and more efficiently. Finally, we evaluate its effect on learning progress and show a slight difference in the learning curve when learning programming with or without the debugger.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"104 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123865155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
With the introduction of the new computing curriculum in England, teachers are facing many challenges, among them the teaching of computer programming. Literature suggests that the conceptual understanding of this subject contributes to its difficulty and that threshold concepts, as a source of troublesome knowledge, have a significant role in this. This paper explores computing teachers' perspectives on the Threshold Concept framework and suggests potential threshold concepts in the area of Functions and, more generally, in Procedural Abstraction. A study was conducted, using the Delphi method, including both computing teachers with experience teaching at upper secondary/high school and computing teachers with experience practicing programming in a professional environment for more than 7 years. The results indicate that the majority of the participants support that the Threshold Concept framework can explain students' difficulties in programming and agreed on 11 potential threshold concepts in the area of Functions and Procedural Abstraction. The participants focused more on the troublesome characteristic of threshold concepts and less on the transformative and integrative. Most of the participants also specified that they would change the way they teach a concept if they knew that this is a threshold one. Finally, the paper discusses the findings and how these will shape our future research.
{"title":"Computing Teachers' Perspectives on Threshold Concepts: Functions and Procedural Abstraction","authors":"Maria Kallia, Sue Sentance","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3137085","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3137085","url":null,"abstract":"With the introduction of the new computing curriculum in England, teachers are facing many challenges, among them the teaching of computer programming. Literature suggests that the conceptual understanding of this subject contributes to its difficulty and that threshold concepts, as a source of troublesome knowledge, have a significant role in this. This paper explores computing teachers' perspectives on the Threshold Concept framework and suggests potential threshold concepts in the area of Functions and, more generally, in Procedural Abstraction. A study was conducted, using the Delphi method, including both computing teachers with experience teaching at upper secondary/high school and computing teachers with experience practicing programming in a professional environment for more than 7 years. The results indicate that the majority of the participants support that the Threshold Concept framework can explain students' difficulties in programming and agreed on 11 potential threshold concepts in the area of Functions and Procedural Abstraction. The participants focused more on the troublesome characteristic of threshold concepts and less on the transformative and integrative. Most of the participants also specified that they would change the way they teach a concept if they knew that this is a threshold one. Finally, the paper discusses the findings and how these will shape our future research.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124166761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The growing demand for qualified computer science teachers requires us to develop scalable professional development and teacher training opportunities that don't require extensive human, financial, and time resources. In this talk, I will discuss how teachers from varied teaching background and computing experiences engage with online professional development materials. I will discuss the findings in the context of prior teacher education literature and how that can inform the design of professional development for training beginning computer science teachers.
{"title":"Computer Science Teacher Professional Development: Towards a Research Agenda on Teacher Thinking and Learning","authors":"Aman Yadav","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3137066","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3137066","url":null,"abstract":"The growing demand for qualified computer science teachers requires us to develop scalable professional development and teacher training opportunities that don't require extensive human, financial, and time resources. In this talk, I will discuss how teachers from varied teaching background and computing experiences engage with online professional development materials. I will discuss the findings in the context of prior teacher education literature and how that can inform the design of professional development for training beginning computer science teachers.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129918988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Recent research with middle school and university students highlights two factors that contribute to programming success: 1) understanding the level of abstraction that you are working at, and 2) being able to move between levels. In this qualitative study we explored levels of abstraction, and particularly the design level, with five K-5 teachers. Here we outline 11 main findings. The teachers interviewed use the design level for both programming and writing. However, the two expert computing teachers have a far greater depth of understanding of the opportunities for the use of the design level, supporting pupils to understand the level they are working at and helping them move between levels of abstraction by using designs in novel ways. Further work is needed to investigate whether our results are generalisable. Further exploration of levels of abstraction and particularly how the design level helps K-5 learners learn to program, in the same way that planning supports novices learning to write, is warranted.
{"title":"K-5 Teachers' Uses of Levels of Abstraction Focusing on Design","authors":"Jane Waite, P. Curzon, W. Marsh, Sue Sentance","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3137068","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3137068","url":null,"abstract":"Recent research with middle school and university students highlights two factors that contribute to programming success: 1) understanding the level of abstraction that you are working at, and 2) being able to move between levels. In this qualitative study we explored levels of abstraction, and particularly the design level, with five K-5 teachers. Here we outline 11 main findings. The teachers interviewed use the design level for both programming and writing. However, the two expert computing teachers have a far greater depth of understanding of the opportunities for the use of the design level, supporting pupils to understand the level they are working at and helping them move between levels of abstraction by using designs in novel ways. Further work is needed to investigate whether our results are generalisable. Further exploration of levels of abstraction and particularly how the design level helps K-5 learners learn to program, in the same way that planning supports novices learning to write, is warranted.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124385255","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Robotics and other interactive devices are new forms of learning in computer science education. Currently there is a lot of research going on with respect to appropriate constructions and other device focused investigations. Recent papers describe students' problems as a side product and without a deeper analysis. However, to implement these devices in a learning setting we need to be aware of concrete problems the students are struggling with. The goal of this paper is to give first empirical results concerning the identified research gap. Therefore, we observed students working with two different devices to figure out occurring problems and problem sources students are confronted with. We found hardware, software and environment as three main problem sources. Additionally, difficulties lie in mathematics and physics, which seems to be more an outside problem source. The students seem to have in particular difficulties with ambiguous problems. As a next step we will develop scaffolds to support students' evaluation of the problems and to help the students to categorize the problems they have to tackle.
{"title":"A Categorizing Taxonomy for Occurring Problems During Robotics Activities","authors":"S. Schulz, Niels Pinkwart","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3137078","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3137078","url":null,"abstract":"Robotics and other interactive devices are new forms of learning in computer science education. Currently there is a lot of research going on with respect to appropriate constructions and other device focused investigations. Recent papers describe students' problems as a side product and without a deeper analysis. However, to implement these devices in a learning setting we need to be aware of concrete problems the students are struggling with. The goal of this paper is to give first empirical results concerning the identified research gap. Therefore, we observed students working with two different devices to figure out occurring problems and problem sources students are confronted with. We found hardware, software and environment as three main problem sources. Additionally, difficulties lie in mathematics and physics, which seems to be more an outside problem source. The students seem to have in particular difficulties with ambiguous problems. As a next step we will develop scaffolds to support students' evaluation of the problems and to help the students to categorize the problems they have to tackle.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123958141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As computer science (CS) occupies a central part of today's everyday life, we see efforts to establish CS as part of our early education system. In order to investigate the current status of and understandings of the integration of CS topics in primary school education from a professional perspective, we conducted a survey among 116 CS teachers in secondary school education and asked them what they thought about CS in primary school education. The findings show that the opinions among teachers differ significantly. Regardless of future political decisions with regard to this matter, children in primary school are confronted with and have questions about the digital environment they live in, which they confront their teachers with. Therefore, the most prominent topics for primary school Algorithmics, Data Integrity and Data Security, Representation of Information and Object Orientation should be introduced in primary school teacher trainings to ensure that CS education can be introduced to primary school teaching in a qualified and structured way.
{"title":"Opinions of CS Teachers in Secondary School Education about CS in Primary School Education","authors":"A. Dengel","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3137088","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3137088","url":null,"abstract":"As computer science (CS) occupies a central part of today's everyday life, we see efforts to establish CS as part of our early education system. In order to investigate the current status of and understandings of the integration of CS topics in primary school education from a professional perspective, we conducted a survey among 116 CS teachers in secondary school education and asked them what they thought about CS in primary school education. The findings show that the opinions among teachers differ significantly. Regardless of future political decisions with regard to this matter, children in primary school are confronted with and have questions about the digital environment they live in, which they confront their teachers with. Therefore, the most prominent topics for primary school Algorithmics, Data Integrity and Data Security, Representation of Information and Object Orientation should be introduced in primary school teacher trainings to ensure that CS education can be introduced to primary school teaching in a qualified and structured way.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127817559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sue Sentance, Jane Waite, Lucy Yeomans, E. MacLeod
There is a growing interest in small programmable devices that can be used in schools and in extra-curricular contexts to teach computer science. The BBC micro:bit is one such device; through a collaborative venture, micro:bits were recently distributed to every 11-12 year old in the UK. Although the technology itself is often of primary interest, a focus on how teachers can use the technology in the classroom to help students learn is increasingly being drawn out in the literature: this paper adds to that body of work Having interviewed 15 teachers and 54 students about their use and experience of the micro:bit, we present an analysis of the varied ways in which teachers are using the BBC micro:bit, and note a range of instructional styles. We classify different approaches to teaching with physical computing, identifying teachers who we describe as either inspirers, providers or consumers. Finally we make recommendations for more teacher professional learning opportunities around physical computing. The results of this qualitative study will be useful to teachers and teacher educators wishing to work more effectively with physical computing in the classroom.
{"title":"Teaching with physical computing devices: the BBC micro:bit initiative","authors":"Sue Sentance, Jane Waite, Lucy Yeomans, E. MacLeod","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3137083","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3137083","url":null,"abstract":"There is a growing interest in small programmable devices that can be used in schools and in extra-curricular contexts to teach computer science. The BBC micro:bit is one such device; through a collaborative venture, micro:bits were recently distributed to every 11-12 year old in the UK. Although the technology itself is often of primary interest, a focus on how teachers can use the technology in the classroom to help students learn is increasingly being drawn out in the literature: this paper adds to that body of work Having interviewed 15 teachers and 54 students about their use and experience of the micro:bit, we present an analysis of the varied ways in which teachers are using the BBC micro:bit, and note a range of instructional styles. We classify different approaches to teaching with physical computing, identifying teachers who we describe as either inspirers, providers or consumers. Finally we make recommendations for more teacher professional learning opportunities around physical computing. The results of this qualitative study will be useful to teachers and teacher educators wishing to work more effectively with physical computing in the classroom.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128471497","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Smartphones have had a rapid rise. From the first affordable mobile phones to modern high-tech devices, they have become ever more complex and increasingly popular. In 2016, almost 100% of the 12 to 19 years-old youths in Germany owned a smartphone and used it regularly. Considering their large impact on adolescents' lives, smartphones are uniquely suited to be analyzed as examples of socio-technical computing systems in secondary computing education. Moreover, they play an increasing role in digital media education in all school subjects. There is however, among other things, a lack of scientific work covering learners' conceptions of smartphones needed for learner-centered computing education with and about smartphones. This article describes an explorative study that investigated secondary school learners' conceptions in the context of smartphones. A first overview of existing conceptions regarding selected aspects of smartphones was derived from eight semi-structured interviews.
{"title":"Which Computing-Related Conceptions Do Learners Have About the Design and Operation of Smartphones?: Results of an Interview Study","authors":"T. Brinda, F. Braun","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3137075","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3137075","url":null,"abstract":"Smartphones have had a rapid rise. From the first affordable mobile phones to modern high-tech devices, they have become ever more complex and increasingly popular. In 2016, almost 100% of the 12 to 19 years-old youths in Germany owned a smartphone and used it regularly. Considering their large impact on adolescents' lives, smartphones are uniquely suited to be analyzed as examples of socio-technical computing systems in secondary computing education. Moreover, they play an increasing role in digital media education in all school subjects. There is however, among other things, a lack of scientific work covering learners' conceptions of smartphones needed for learner-centered computing education with and about smartphones. This article describes an explorative study that investigated secondary school learners' conceptions in the context of smartphones. A first overview of existing conceptions regarding selected aspects of smartphones was derived from eight semi-structured interviews.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"89 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125006025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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