Learning programming at university level is the challenge for both students and teachers, especially for students without previous exposure to programming. Most of the programming courses are compulsory and tough to learn for novice programmers. Students lack the understanding of basic programming concepts and algorithms and find programming difficult. Early failure of understanding important concepts weakens students' confidence and increases drop-out rate. Students' success rate and perception during most important programming courses at the undergraduate level at the Faculty of Science, University of Split over extended period of time were analyzed. Results of this research are presented in this paper.
Abstract-In the Republic of Croatia Informatics is an elective course in elementary school for students from 5th to 8th grade. When it comes to programming language teachers can choose between BASIC and Logo. There are a lot of new programming environments for learning and teaching programming like Scratch and also new ways of teaching programming like game based learning. This study compares attitudinal and learning outcomes of 7th-grade students programming in Logo and Scratch. The classes were normal classes, non-extracurricular activities. The questionnaire is used to measure the attitude towards programming and programming languages. The test is constructed to measure learned programming concepts in both compared programming languages Logo and Scratch. Results showed that learning Scratch first can provide a better understanding of basic programming concept for novices in elementary school than Logo.
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