Modeling the learning progressions of computational thinking of primary grade students

Seiter, Linda M.; Foreman, Brendan

doi:10.1145/2493394.2493403

Cited by 167 publications

(110 citation statements)

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“…Dr.Scratch is a web tool based on Hairball (Boe et al, 2013) that implements several CT assessment methods found in the research literature (Brennan & Resnick, 2012;Moreno & Robles, 2014;Seiter & Foreman, 2013;Wilson, Hainey, & Connolly, 2012;Wolz, Hallberg, & Taylor, 2011). The CT score that Dr.Scratch assigns to projects is based on the degree of development of following dimensions of the CT competence: abstraction and problem decomposition, logical thinking, synchronization, parallelism, algorithmic notions of flow control, data representation, and user interactivity.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Code to Learn: Where Does It Belong in the K-12 Curriculum?

2016

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The introduction of computer programming in K-12 has become mainstream in the last years, as countries around the world are making coding part of their curriculum. Nevertheless, there is a lack of empirical studies that investigate how learning to program at an early age affects other school subjects. In this regard, this paper compares three quasi-experimental research designs conducted in three different schools (n=129 students from 2 nd and 6 th grade), in order to assess the impact of introducing programming with Scratch at different stages and in several subjects. While both 6 th grade experimental groups working with coding activities showed a statistically significant improvement in terms of academic performance, this was not the case in the 2 nd grade classroom. Notable disparity was also found regarding the subject in which the programming activities were included, as in social studies the effect size was double that in mathematics.Keywords: elementary education, improving classroom teaching, interdisciplinary projects, programming and programming languages, teaching/learning strategies, computer education, Scratch. IntroductionComputer programming is becoming a basic skill that allows participating effectively in a world full of digital objects (González, 2014), and in recent years we are witnessing initiatives worldwide to promote the teaching of programming in schools. However, there is little consensus about the way programming should be included in the curriculum (Grover & Pea, 2013).The European Schoolnet has elaborated a report where 20 European MinistriesMaterial published as part of this publication, either on-line or in print, is copyrighted by the Informing Science Institute. Permission to make digital or paper copy of part or all of these works for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that the copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage AND that copies 1) bear this notice in full and 2) give the full citation on the first page. It is permissible to abstract these works so long as credit is given. To copy in all other cases or to republish or to post on a server or to redistribute to lists requires specific permission and payment of a fee. Contact Publisher@InformingScience.org to request redistribution permission.Code to Learn: Where Does It Belong in the K-12 Curriculum? 284of Education give an overview of their current initiatives and plans regarding computer programming (Balanskat & Engelhardt, 2015). There are countries where programming is an end in itself, as the focus is on the potential benefits for those who know to program when they enter the labor market. This approach is based on studies that estimate that in the near future there will be a significant shortage of well-trained professionals in this field in Europe (Gareis et al., 2014) and in the US (Cuny, 2012). Some countries have decided to create a new specific subject, while others have included coding in the general ICT/technology course. Other governments are consideri...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Code to Learn: Where Does It Belong in the K-12 Curriculum?

2016

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“…This advice contrasts with the work of other researchers who have identified patterns in student-created programs as a means of evaluating their degree of programming sophistication [5,7] but have not used them as teaching aids. In the SGD classroom, CTPs provide a means for describing solutions without going to the level of detail that includes every programming primitive involved.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 58%

Collaboration and Computational Thinking: A classroom structure

Worrell

Brand

Repenning

2015

2015 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC)

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Building a classroom environment based on student-led, meaningful collaboration is an ideal being promoted by educators and administrators seeking to equip students with 21st century workforce skills. More and more often, teachers are challenged to design lessons that utilize students' innate desire to communicate with one another rather than more traditional direct instruction. With a heavy focus on student-driven instruction and a reduced role for direct instruction, Carson Middle School's Game Design I course is able to utilize collaboration as a means for allowing students to not only learn but master and retain Computational Thinking Patterns and apply them in formal summative assessments. Through the collection of these data points throughout the course of a semester of learning, an educator can fully appreciate the learning of Computational Thinking skills that occurs as students build a sequence of games and simulations.

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“…Most of all, while engaging in testing and evaluating practices, children need to reflect on what causes any mismatches between the intention of the programming and the actualized robot performance. This is the practice of debugging [66]. By detecting mismatches and correcting the programming errors that caused those mismatches, children can close the gap between the robots desired state and its observed state [48].…”

Section: Engineering Design Processmentioning

confidence: 99%