Ict teachers’ visual programming teaching experiences

Since computational thinking is being discussed as a necessary skill for 21st century, many countries decided to integrate visual programming into the elementary school curricula. This study aims to investigate “teaching to code at elementary school level” through the opinions of teachers who have chosen to teach coding as a part of ICT and Software course. The research used a mixed methodology approach, and data were collected through interviews with ICT teachers and followed by a survey. Findings revealed that teachers use various strategies for introducing the coding concept, teach the lesson through examples from daily life, game development, and group studies. Based on interview data, the individual differences of students in terms of overall academic achievement status and interest in coding seemed to be important for coding lessons. Furthermore, findings indicate that learning to code may contribute to students’ development on problem solving, logical thinking, and algorithm design skills, creativity and productivity. © 2017, Ankara University. All rights reserved

Bilişim Teknolojileri Öğretmenlerinin Görsel Programlama Öğretimi Deneyimleri

Hesaplamalı düşünmenin (computational thinking) her öğrencinin kazanması gereken bir “21 yüzyıl becerisi” olduğu düşüncesi bir çok ülkenin ilköğretim düzeyindeki öğretim programlarına görsel kodlama derslerinin dahil olmasını sağlamıştır. Bu araştırma da, halihazırda bilişim teknolojileri dersinde görsel programlama öğretimi yapan öğretmenlerin gözünden  ilköğretimde görsel programlama öğretiminin incelenmesini amaçlamaktadır. Araştırma karma yöntem araştırma yaklaşımıyla yürütülmüş; öğretmenlerle yüz yüze görüşmeler sonrasında bir anket geliştirilerek uygulanmıştır. Bulgular, öğretmenlerin, programlamaya giriş amacıyla birbirlerinden farklı yöntemler kullandıklarını, gerçek hayattan örnekler, oyun tasarımı ve grup çalışmalarıyla ders işlediklerini, öğrencilerin genel akademik başarı durumları ve programlamaya ilgi düzeyleri arasındaki farklılıkların önemli olduğunu ortaya çıkarmıştır. Ayrıca programlamanın, öğrencilerin problem çözme, mantık yürütme ve algoritma oluşturma gibi farklı alanlardaki becerilerinin, yaratıcılık ve üreticiliklerinin gelişmesine katkı sağlayabileceği sonucuna varılmıştır

Fifty years of the Psychology of Programming

This paper reflects on the evolution (past, present and future) of the ‘psychology of programming' over the 50 year period of this anniversary issue. The International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (IJHCS) has been a key venue for much seminal work in this field, including its first foundations, and we review the changing research concerns seen in publications over these five decades. We relate this thematic evolution to research taking place over the same period within more specialist communities, especially the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG), the Empirical Studies of Programming series (ESP), and the ongoing community in Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC). Many other communities have interacted with psychology of programming, both influenced by research published within the specialist groups, and in turn influencing research priorities. We end with an overview of the core theories that have been developed over this period, as an introductory resource for new researchers, and also with the authors’ own analysis of key priorities for future research

Applying Gentner's theory of analogy to the teaching of computer programming

10.1006/imms.1993.1016International Journal of Man-Machine Studies383347-368IJMM

The role of metaphor in user interface design

The thesis discusses the question of how unfamiliar computing systems, particularly those with graphical user interfaces, are learned and used. In particular, the approach of basing the design and behaviour of on-screen objects in the system's model world on a coherent theme and employing a metaphor is explored. The drawbacks, as well as the advantages, of this approach are reviewed and presented. The use of metaphors is also contrasted with other forms of users' mental models of interactive systems, and the need to provide a system image from which useful mental models can be developed is presented. Metaphors are placed in the context of users' understanding of interactive systems and novel application is made of the Qualitative Process Theory (QPT) qualitative reasoning model to reason about the behaviour of on-screen objects, the underlying system functionality, and the relationship between the two. This analysis supports reevaluation of the domains between which user interface metaphors are said to form mappings. A novel user interface design, entitled Medusa, that adopts guidelines for the design of metaphor-based systems, and for helping the user develop successful mental models, based on the QPT analysis and an empirical study of a popular metaphor-based system, is described. The first Medusa design is critiqued using well-founded usability inspection method. Employing the Lakoff/Johnson theory, a revised version of the Medusa user interface is described that derives its application semantics and dialogue structures from the entailments of the knowledge structures that ground understanding of the interface metaphor and that capture notions of embodiment in interaction with computing devices that QPT descriptions cannot. Design guidelines from influential existing work, and new methods of reasoning about metaphor-based designs, are presented with a number of novel graphical user interface designs intended to overcome the failings of existing systems and design approaches