Effect of a 2-week scratch intervention in CS1 on learners with varying prior knowledge

Abstract

A large CS1 class often needs to provide scaffolding for novices while keeping advanced learners engaged. Scratch has been shown to be suitable to address a diverse set of requirements. In this study, we determine whether a 2-week Scratch intervention in a CS1 course is useful from two perspectives: i) as a scaffold for novices to learn basic programming concepts and transition to C++, and ii) as a tool for advanced learners to remain engaged and do challenging work. We conducted a field study of 332 first-year undergraduate engineering students, two-thirds of whom were novices. We analyzed student performance on exams and Scratch projects. We administered a survey to determine student perceptions on the usefulness of Scratch. Some key findings of our study are: (i) Novices were able to catch-up to advanced learners in Scratch questions of the type 'Predict the output' and 'Debug the program', (ii) Projects by advanced learners reached 80% of the complexity of 'most loved projects' on the Scratch website, and (iii) 69% of students perceived Scratch to be useful for learning programming concepts and transitioning to C++.

A systematic literature review of student engagement in software visualization: a theoretical perspective

“…In educational technology research, this theory is used to design flow activities (or experience) and to understand the users' reactions and motivations towards the application (Csikszentmihalyi, 2014;O'Brien & Toms, 2008). For instance, in Mishra et al (2014)'s study, the theory was used to design an artifact to maintain different levels of student engagement by supporting varying levels of activity. In the same vein, in Yohannis and Prabowo (2015)'s study, which was affected by the flow principles, the different levels of the tools should be carefully designed to ensure the flow of student.…”

Oficinas de Aprendizagem de Programação com Scratch e Python em um Curso de Engenharia de Computação

“…Malan and Leitner (2007) utilizam Scratch em uma versão de verão de um curso de introduçaoà programação na Universidade de Harvard e constatam que a ferramenta motiva os estudantes e familiariza os inexperientes com fundamentos de programação sem a distração da sintaxe . Mishra et al (2014) descrevem uma intervenção de duas semanas com Scratch em um curso de introduçãoà programação com C++, ministrado para estudantes de engenharia . Os resultados obtidos demonstram que os estudantes novatos são capazes de acompanhar os estudantes mais avançados e a maioria deles reconhece que Scratch ajudou-os a aprender conceitos de programação, facilitando a aprendizagem de C++.…”

Computational Thinking and Literacy

“…Research indicates Scratch and Alice are effective in transitioning students into text-based languages such as C and C++. For example, findings from a 2-week Scratch intervention in a CS1 course on novice programmers showed advanced programmers using C++ reached 80% of the complexity of highly rated novice Scratch programs and 69% of students perceived Scratch to be useful in transitioning to C++ (Mishra, Balan, Iyer, & Murthy, 2014). Findings from a quasi-experimental design using repeated measures found that students in a CS1 course using Alice performed better on performance tasks than the comparison group of students using C (Sykes, 2007).…”