Abstraction in action: K-5 teachers' uses of levels of abstraction, particularly the design level, in teaching programming.

Waite, Jane; Curzon, Paul; Marsh, William; Sentance, Sue; Hadwen-Bennett, Alex

doi:10.21585/ijcses.v2i1.23

Cited by 21 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Other research suggests explicit introduction of design [Waite et al 2018] is important in the teaching of programming. This requires the introduction of 'design' as a new concept with potentially strong semantic density.…”

Section: Potentialmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unplugged Computing and Semantic Waves

Waite

Maton

Curzon

et al. 2019

Proceedings of the 1st UK &Amp; Ireland Computing Education Research Conference on - UKICER

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We explore how Legitimation Code Theory, and, in particular, semantic waves, provides a useful way to understand what makes unplugged computing activities effective (or not) in the classroom. We overview the theory, discuss how it applies to unplugged activities, and describe a case study where we apply it to a specific, widely used, unplugged activity. In particular, we show that the published lesson plan follows a semantic wave. We suggest that semantic waves are useful both in developing and reviewing lesson plans around unplugged (and other) computing activities. They also have great potential in teacher training and continuous professional development of computing teachers.

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Section: Potentialmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unplugged Computing and Semantic Waves

Waite

Maton

Curzon

et al. 2019

Proceedings of the 1st UK &Amp; Ireland Computing Education Research Conference on - UKICER

Self Cite

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“…By comparison, threequarters of generalist teachers (78%) 'Always' or 'Usually' expected this and only 3% 'Rarely' or 'Never' required this for planning. In annotating designs with useful code snippets, pupils are bridging from 'design' to the 'code' [35]. The ability to recognise and then move between these 'levels of abstraction' has been cited as an important skill [1,32].…”

Section: Rq3: Do Teachers Use Design and Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Planning, as used in teaching writing, has potential synergies with design. This raises the possibility of transferring common instructional techniques from the teaching of writing to the teaching of programming [35].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This study is part of a larger programme investigating the use of abstraction in the teaching and learning of K-5 programming in schools. In our first qualitative study, we interviewed 5 teachers and 50 pupils to explore their use of one form of abstraction in action, that of design in programming projects and planning in other subjects [35]. Referencing a level of abstraction framework used with older learners and their teachers [1,23,32] we renamed the object or algorithm level the 'design level' for K-5 [36].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Referencing a level of abstraction framework used with older learners and their teachers [1,23,32] we renamed the object or algorithm level the 'design level' for K-5 [36]. Using this framework as a lens, we reviewed teachers' uses and understanding of the levels of abstraction framework, particularly the design level [35].We proposed that there were possible synergies between planning to teach writing and design to teach programming but suggested further investigation to discover if interview results were generalizable across a wider population.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Comparing K-5 teachers' reported use of design in teaching programming and planning in teaching writing

Waite

Curzon

Marsh

et al. 2018

Proceedings of the 13th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education

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K-5 teachers teach a range of subjects & develop generic teaching skills; when starting to teach computing, particularly programming, practitioners may not realise that they can draw on these other skills to support their teaching. In a small study of K-5 teachers, potential synergies were suggested between using planning in the the teaching of writing and design in the teaching of programming. In this paper, we explore these synergies by surveying a wider group of teachers (n=207) on their uses of planning and design. Teachers reported the usefulness of planning for writing and design for programming as equally important. However, there were significant differences in their uses. The majority saw planning as essential in writing & put this into practice in their teaching. For example, they demonstrated the creation of plans, expected students to annotate plans, required students to refer to plans when writing and used plans to differentiate. By contrast, these uses were implemented less frequently in programming tasks. We also report on differences in the confidence of male & female respondents, & between generalists (who teach programming & writing) & specialists (who do not teach writing). For example, females were more confident to teach writing than programming, with males vice versa. Having revealed opportunities for reuse of successful techniques used in teaching writing for the teaching of programming we recommend further work is needed to explore this transfer of pedagogical knowledge.

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Observing Abstraction in Young Children Solving Algorithmic Tasks

Faber

Koning

Wierdsma

et al. 2019

Informatics in Schools. New Ideas in School Informatics

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ion is considered an essential aspect of computational thinking. Primary schools are starting to include computational thinking into the curriculum. However, in order to guide their support, teachers need to know how to recognize abstraction. In this paper, we present how we can observe abstraction in young children tasked with solving an algorithmic assignment. In order to operationalize abstraction, we have used the layers of abstraction (LOA) model by Perrenet, Groote and Kaasenbrood. This model was originally used in the field of computer science and describes programming behavior at the level of software development, but has since been extended for use in primary education. We have operationalized this model for use with 5 to 6 year old students tasked with programming an educational robot. Their behavior has been related to each of the four layers of abstraction.Students were individually instructed with programming Cubetto, an educational robot, to reach a number of destinations, increasing in the level of algorithmic complexity. We analyzed audio and video recordings of the students interacting with Cubetto and a teacher. Verbal and nonverbal behavior were categorized by two researchers and resulted in an observation schema.We conclude that our operationalization of the LOA model is promising for characterizing young students' abstraction. Future research is needed to operationalize abstraction for older primary school students.

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Abstraction in action: K-5 teachers' uses of levels of abstraction, particularly the design level, in teaching programming.

Cited by 21 publications

References 56 publications

Unplugged Computing and Semantic Waves

Unplugged Computing and Semantic Waves

Comparing K-5 teachers' reported use of design in teaching programming and planning in teaching writing

Observing Abstraction in Young Children Solving Algorithmic Tasks

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