Scratch

Abstract

There is concern amongst teachers about how to support all pupils in making the transition from popular graphical languages like Scratch to text-based languages like Python. In a new subject, not taught widely before at both primary and secondary education in England, there is inevitably a lack of tuned-in pedagogical expertise. In this paper, the authors address the transition process by exploring established pedagogy in Computer Science, and other subjects including Mathematics, Science and Languages, and by sharing and testing their findings with pupils and teachers in the classroom. Teaching the fundamentals of programming is well served by applying sequential solutions in both graphical and text-based languages. This practitioner action research paper focuses on scaffolding support for pupils when making the transition from graphical to text-based languages. In an approach which uses graphical languages in conjunction with, not in place of, textbased programming languages, the authors discuss ways to tackle the difficulties presented to pupils by text-based languages, and propose a tested strategy for teachers to enable pupils to undertake the transition successfully.

The Effect of Teaching Physical Programming on Computational Thinking Skills and Self-Efficacy Perceptions Towards Computational Thinking

“…In a study by Romero and Dupont (2016), it was stated that through the use of educational robot kits in education, students’ skills in critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, problem solving, and computational thinking improved. The results of the current study are also consistent with statements published in research by Dorling and White (2015) and Park and Yoo (2018), in that primary and secondary school students are able to successfully learn text-based programming concepts and demonstrate effective performance. On the other hand, Keith et al (2019) observed that students’ computational thinking skills developed as a result of working with robotic activities, and saw robotic activities as an important tool in the development of learners’ computational thinking skills.…”

Integrating Data Structures and Algorithms in K-12 Education using Block-based Programming

“…Furthermore, research suggests that students working with block-based interfaces demonstrated greater interest and learning gains in future programming efforts [21], [22]. DSAScratch extends the possibilities offered by Scratch as an introductory programming tool to enable students to experiment with advanced algorithms before moving into Python or other more advanced programming languages [23]. Studies demonstrate that block-based approaches provide a greater advantage than text-based approaches in this context when introducing difficult concepts to novices [20], [24].…”

Designing a Programming Game to Improve Children’s Procedural Abstraction Skills in Scratch

“…The constructionist programming approach in block-based environments like Scratch can result in poor programming practices because proper software engineering principles are not introduced (Dorling & White, 2015). Code smells are a useful method for identifying these bad practices.…”