Pirate plunder: game-based computational thinking using scratch blocks

Policy makers worldwide argue that children should be taught how technology works, and that the ‘computational thinking’ skills developed through programming are useful in a wider context. This is causing an increased focus on computer science in primary and secondary education. Block-based programming tools, like Scratch, have become ubiquitous in primary education (5 to 11-years-old) throughout the UK. However, Scratch users often struggle to detect and correct ‘code smells’ (bad programming practices) such as duplicated blocks and large scripts, which can lead to programs that are difficult to understand. These ‘smells’ are caused by a lack of abstraction and decomposition in programs; skills that play a key role in computational thinking. In Scratch, repeats (loops), custom blocks (procedures) and clones (instances) can be used to correct these smells. Yet, custom blocks and clones are rarely taught to children under 11-years-old. We describe the design of a novel educational block-based programming game, Pirate Plunder, which aims to teach these skills to children aged 9-11. Players use Scratch blocks to navigate around a grid, collect items and interact with obstacles. Blocks are explained in ‘tutorials’; the player then completes a series of ‘challenges’ before attempting the next tutorial. A set of Scratch blocks, including repeats, custom blocks and clones, are introduced in a linear difficulty progression. There are two versions of Pirate Plunder; one that uses a debugging-first approach, where the player is given a program that is incomplete or incorrect, and one where each level begins with an empty program. The game design has been developed through iterative playtesting. The observations made during this process have influenced key design decisions such as Scratch integration, difficulty progression and reward system. In future, we will evaluate Pirate Plunder against a traditional Scratch curriculum and compare the debugging-first and non-debugging versions in a series of studies

Using Pirate Plunder to develop children’s abstraction skills in Scratch

Scratch users often struggle to detect and correct ‘code smells’ (bad programming practices) such as duplicated blocks and large scripts, which can make programs difficult to understand and debug. These ‘smells’ can be caused by a lack of abstraction, a skill that plays a key role in computer science and computational thinking. We created Pirate Plunder, a novel educational block-based programming game, that aims to teach children to reduce smells by reusing code in Scratch. This work describes an experimental study designed to measure the efficacy of Pirate Plunder with children aged 10 and 11. The findings were that children who played the game were then able to use custom blocks (procedures) to reuse code in Scratch, compared to non-programming and programming control groups

Teaching computer science in general education in Ukraine: status and prospects

Ринок праці змінюється під впливом розвитку та використання в усіх галузях цифрових технологій, всюду відбувається цифрова трансформація, зокрема і в освіті. У сучасному цифровому суспільстві особлива увага приділяється формуванню інформаційно-цифрової компетентності не лише вчителів та учнів, а й громадян, яке розпочинається в початковій та середній школі. Це суттєво впливає на роль і зміст предмета “Інформатика” не лише в Україні, а й в багатьох країнах світу. Відповідно до концепції НУШ та нових Державних освітніх стандартів ця компетентність належить до базової і має особливе значення. Предмет “Інформатика” має за основну мету забезпечення високого рівня інформаційно-цифрової компетентності учнів. У статті подано результати аналізу проведеного в межах проєкту “Оновлена інформатика - ІТ Студії”, що реалізується за ініціативи Міністерства цифрової трансформації спільно з МОН України та програмою EU4Digital U, опитування. Респондентами стали 250 учителів інформатики, представників ІТ-підприємств та викладачів університетів. Для модернізації змісту навчання інформатики, створення відповідних цифрових ресурсів, розробки інноваційних педагогічних технологій навчання учнів, зокрема в умовах війни, при впровадженні дистанційної та змішаної форма навчання необхідно дізнатися очікування від суспільства, ринку праці та освітян. Результати проведеного дослідження дозволили оновити основі змістові лінії навчання інформатики та виділити сучасні модулі навчання учнів початкової, середньої та профільної школи та побудувати сучасну модель навчання учнів. У межах проєкту обрано експериментальні навчальні заклади, у яких відбувається навчання за новим змістом предмету “Інформатика” та розробляються цифрові освітні ресурси для учнів, проводиться їх апробація, що є наступним кроком поданого дослідження

Enseñanza de la programación en la formación docente: análisis de la experiencia de los participantes desde una propuesta de evaluación reflexiva

El presente trabajo expone una propuesta de evaluación reflexiva que permite identificar aspectos relacionados con el diseño y la programación de producciones multimedia en Scratch. Esta propuesta toma aportes de trabajos previos y ha sido implementada en los talleres de programación desarrollados en el marco de la “Especialización Docente de Nivel Superior en Didáctica de las Ciencias de la Computación: Aprendizaje y Enseñanza del Pensamiento Computacional y la Programación en el Nivel Primario", implementada en Rosario (Santa Fe, Argentina). El análisis preliminar revela que la propuesta ha permitido a los participantes identificar diferentes aspectos y dimensiones respecto de los procesos en juego al programar. Se espera que estos análisis aporten evidencia que permita delinear futuros trayectos de formación docente en programación, poniendo en valor el proceso y las experiencias de los participantes. Asimismo, se pone a disposición la propuesta de evaluación, que puede emplearse y adaptarse para evaluar procesos desarrollados con otras herramientas que puedan emplearse en la enseñanza de la programación.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Comparing TUIs and GUIs for primary school programming

There is considerable interest in using tangible user interfaces (TUIs) to support teaching children programming, but evidence for the benefits is mixed, and their deployment in school environments presents more challenges than graphical user interfaces (GUIs). This study investigates the effect of GUIs and TUIs on learning outcomes, attitudes toward computing, and reported enjoyment in a computer-programming activity with primary-school students aged 6-7 in Saudi Arabia. Forty-two students engaged in a 45-minute learning activity using either a TUI or GUI programming environment. The study used a between-groups design, and quantitative data were collected, including pre-test and post-test results, and ratings on attitudinal and enjoyment surveys. Learning gains were significantly higher for the GUI group than the TUI group. However, post-activity increases in reported attitude toward computing were significantly higher for the TUI group. There was no difference in activity enjoyment scores, which were high for both groups

An exploration of the role of visual programming tools in the development of young children’s computational thinking

Programming tools are being used in education to teach computer science to children as young as 5 years old. This research aims to explore young children’s approaches to programming in two tools with contrasting programming interfaces, ScratchJr and Lightbot, and considers the impact of programming approaches on developing computational thinking. A study was conducted using two versions of a Lightbot-style game, either using a ScratchJr-like or Lightbot style programming interface. A test of non-verbal reasoning was used to perform a matched assignment of 40, 6 and 7-year-olds to the two conditions. Each child then played their version of the game for 30 minutes. The results showed that both groups had similar overall performance, but as expected, the children using the ScratchJr-like interface performed more program manipulation or ‘tinkering’. The most interesting finding was that non-verbal reasoning was a predictor of program manipulation, but only for the ScratchJr-like condition. Children approached the ScratchJr-like program differently depending on prior ability. More research is required to establish how children use programming tools and how these approaches influence computational thinking

Proposals for the promotion of computing in K-12 studies in Spain

The information society requires new skills and knowledge about how to cope in a computerized world. Although it is fully assumed in the political and social discourse, it is a neglected subject in formal education. Each nation should analyze how computing is learned in its K-12 education system. This research-to-practice paper presents the report carried out in Spain promoted by two academic associations, which analyzes the state of computing education in Spain in K-12 studies, summarizes some elements of the didactics of computing and analyzes the training received by teachers who will train K-12 students. The report also presents some reflections of the working group in charge, and nine proposals for improvement oriented to policy makers are pointed out.This work has been funded by the Departament de Recerca i Universitats de la Generalitat de Catalunya - 2021 SGR 01412,Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de QualitatPostprint (author's final draft

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

© The Author(s) 2020. The recent shift in compulsory education from ICT-focused computing curricula to informatics, digital literacy and computer science, has resulted in children being taught computing using block-based programming tools such as Scratch, with teaching that is often limited by school resources and teacher expertise. Even without these limitations, Scratch users often produce code with ‘code smells’ such as duplicate blocks and long scripts which impact how they understand and debug projects. These code smells can be removed using procedural abstraction, an important concept in computer science rarely taught to this age group. This article describes the design of a novel educational block-based programming game, Pirate Plunder, which concentrates on how procedural abstraction is introduced and reinforced. The article then reports an extended evaluation to measure the game’s efficacy with children aged 10 and 11, finding that children who played the game were then able to use procedural abstraction in Scratch. The article then uses game analytics to explore why the game was effective and gives three recommendations for educational game design based on this research: using learning trajectories and restrictive success conditions to introduce complex content, increasing learner investment through customisable avatars and suggestions for improving the evaluations of educational games

Analyse comparative d’une activité d’apprentissage de la programmation en mode branché et débranché

International audienceL’introduction de la programmation à l’école peut être un levier pour développer la penséeinformatique en lien avec une démarche de résolution de problèmes. Dans ce contexte, nous nous intéressonsaux différents types d’activités d’apprentissage de la programmation dans le but d’établir un protocole pourcomparer les activités branchées et débranchées à l’école, et plus particulièrement de voir dans quelle mesureune activité débranchée permet un transfert de compétences vers l’apprentissage de la programmation. Nousdiscutons la méthodologie et les résultats en lien aux observations réalisées au cours des activités deformation Class’Code