Evaluating a Course for Teaching Advanced Programming Concepts with Scratch to Preservice Kindergarten Teachers: A Case Study in Greece

Coding is a new literacy for the twenty-first century, and as a literacy, coding enables new ways of thinking and new ways of communicating and expressing ideas, as well as new ways of civic participation. A growing number of countries, in Europe and beyond, have established clear policies and frameworks for introducing computational thinking (CT) and computer programming to young children. In this chapter, we discuss a game-based approach to coding education for preservice kindergarten teachers using Scratch. The aim of using Scratch was to excite students’ interest and familiarize them with the basics of programming in an open-ended, project-based, and personally meaningful environment for a semester course in the Department of Preschool Education in the University of Crete. For 13 weeks, students were introduced to the main Scratch concepts and, afterward, were asked to prepare their projects. For the projects, they were required to design their own interactive stories to teach certain concepts about mathematics or physical science to preschool-age students. The results we obtained were more satisfactory than expected and, in some regards, encouraging if one considers the fact that the research participants had no prior experiences with computational thinking

Computer Science at Community Colleges: Attitudes and Trends

This study aimed to understand the identity and attitude of students enrolled in computer science (CS) or programming-related course at community colleges nationwide. This study quantitatively evaluation data for estimating the relationships between students’ identity and attitudes toward computer science with prior programming experience and other demographic factors. I distributed the survey to community college faculty of computer science programs nationwide. Questions for this study were adapted from the Computing Attitude Survey developed by Weibe, Williams, Yang, & Miller (2003). Using two robust quantitative statistical methodologies, I investigated the correlations and predictability of previous programming experience, gender, race, and age with participants\u27 attitudes toward computer science. This study drew its inspiration from prior works of Dorn and Tew (2015) and Chen, Haduong, Brennan, Sonnert, and Sadler (2018), whose studies looked at previous experiences in programming with a favorable attitude toward computer science. The primary independent variable was a students’ prior programming experience. Under evaluation, the dependent variables were students\u27 programming experience and demographic characteristics such as race, gender, and age. This investigation showed a significant association between programming experience and attitude toward computer science. Among the demographic variables evaluated, students\u27 racial identity was the only factor found highly correlated with attitudes toward computer science. Future work will consider the association between participants\u27 accumulated college credit hours and specific programming language effects on computer science attitudes

Integrating Coding and Artificial Intelligence in English Language Teaching: A Study at Cihan University-Duhok

Coding and language acquisition are highly valued in the present world, not only in the educational system but also in daily life and earning a living. In terms of Artificial intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Deep Learning, etc., coding is becoming more and more integrated into daily life. Applying coding to increase the visualization of English learning by smart systems employing AI in the classroom, in the context of English Language Teaching (ELT), may have a significant influence on how students learn. Any civilization needs language to facilitate social interaction because it allows people to communicate their ideas, opinions, and feelings to others while also advancing their knowledge. English is a language that everyone may use to communicate with one another. As a result of the growing tendency of linguistic globalization, bilingualism is becoming a fairly common phenomenon in today\u27s world. This paper will investigate the potential effects of coding on undergraduate students\u27 academic performance and English language comprehension. It tries to assess both levels of learning English and vocabulary by coding using the survey data by SPSS. Additionally, it will make an effort to link the teacher\u27s study level and outside-the-classroom teaching methods. A thorough literature review has been done and a research gap has been found. Then for the study, 60 undergraduate students from the Department of English, Cihan University- Duhok were chosen, and they were requested to take a pre-test to gauge their level of English proficiency. Additionally, the faculty were picked to gauge how easy it was for the students to grasp the language. After introducing coding and smart systems into the learning process, a post-test was conducted, and the outcomes were evaluated. The AI and smart system in the ELT can enhance the way and interest of learning. This study has led to the conclusion that coding can be added to ELT to enhance learning

Makers at School, Educational Robotics and Innovative Learning Environments

This open access book contains observations, outlines, and analyses of educational robotics methodologies and activities, and developments in the field of educational robotics emerging from the findings presented at FabLearn Italy 2019, the international conference that brought together researchers, teachers, educators and practitioners to discuss the principles of Making and educational robotics in formal, non-formal and informal education. The editors’ analysis of these extended versions of papers presented at FabLearn Italy 2019 highlight the latest findings on learning models based on Making and educational robotics. The authors investigate how innovative educational tools and methodologies can support a novel, more effective and more inclusive learner-centered approach to education. The following key topics are the focus of discussion: Makerspaces and Fab Labs in schools, a maker approach to teaching and learning; laboratory teaching and the maker approach, models, methods and instruments; curricular and non-curricular robotics in formal, non-formal and informal education; social and assistive robotics in education; the effect of innovative spaces and learning environments on the innovation of teaching, good practices and pilot projects

Coding for Indonesian elementary school students: parents’ perceptions

In the digital era, coding skills have become increasingly prevalent and are now taught in schools. This paper aims to illuminate parents' perceptions of coding education for elementary school students in Indonesia. The study focuses on eight parents who enrolled their children in a coding school in Central Java, Indonesia. To gather data, open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were conducted. The collected data were subsequently analyzed thematically. The study revealed that parents held positive perceptions of coding skills for elementary school students. This positivity stemmed from their awareness of the rapid development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the anticipation of the future impact of ICT skills, trust in the institution, and their children's interest in ICT. Furthermore, parents expressed positive perceptions of their children's progress, attributing it to improved coding skills and positive attitudes. They emphasized the importance of mutual collaboration and communication between parents and schools to enhance the learning experience. In addition to offering a coding curriculum, the school provided parents with up-to-date information about ICT through seminars and regular digital content distribution. The collaboration between the school and parents extended to establishing rules regarding the use of mobile phones and PCs to prevent potential harms from excessive device usage. This suggests that the success of coding education for children necessitates effective collaboration between parents and schools

The DKAP Project The Country Report of Vietnam

Viet Nam is at the beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In order to grasp the opportunities that the revolution has brought about, and to successfully build the society of digital citizens, there must be the demand of enhancing the capacity and capability for students to meet international standards in terms of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) skills. Viet Nam was selected as one of the four countries (Viet Nam, Bangladesh, Fiji, and the Republic of Korea) to join UNESCO Bangkok’s “Digital Kids Asia Pacific (DKAP)” project, a comparative cross-national study with the aim to seek the understanding and address children’s ICT practices, attitudes, behaviors, and competency levels within an educational context. Thanks to the project, the Vietnamese research team completely conducted the survey in twenty (20) schools from five (5) provinces in Viet Nam. With the data on the digital citizenship competency levels of 1,061 10th grade students, the research team discovered the valuable findings to draw an initial big picture for Vietnamese policy makers, educators, and teachers about digital citizenship competencies of 15-year-old Vietnamese students

Game-Based Learning, Gamification in Education and Serious Games

The aim of this book is to present and discuss new advances in serious games to show how they could enhance the effectiveness and outreach of education, advertising, social awareness, health, policies, etc. We present their use in structured learning activities, not only with a focus on game-based learning, but also on the use of game elements and game design techniques to gamify the learning process. The published contributions really demonstrate the wide scope of application of game-based approaches in terms of purpose, target groups, technologies and domains and one aspect they have in common is that they provide evidence of how effective serious games, game-based learning and gamification can be

Makers at School, Educational Robotics and Innovative Learning Environments

This open access book contains observations, outlines, and analyses of educational robotics methodologies and activities, and developments in the field of educational robotics emerging from the findings presented at FabLearn Italy 2019, the international conference that brought together researchers, teachers, educators and practitioners to discuss the principles of Making and educational robotics in formal, non-formal and informal education. The editors’ analysis of these extended versions of papers presented at FabLearn Italy 2019 highlight the latest findings on learning models based on Making and educational robotics. The authors investigate how innovative educational tools and methodologies can support a novel, more effective and more inclusive learner-centered approach to education. The following key topics are the focus of discussion: Makerspaces and Fab Labs in schools, a maker approach to teaching and learning; laboratory teaching and the maker approach, models, methods and instruments; curricular and non-curricular robotics in formal, non-formal and informal education; social and assistive robotics in education; the effect of innovative spaces and learning environments on the innovation of teaching, good practices and pilot projects

Investigating Gender Diversity, Equity, And Inclusivity And Students’ Experiences Within Collegiate Team-Based Learning Environments

As the United States works towards strengthening and diversifying the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce, many national charges aim to increase the quantity of female participants, while overlooking how systematic barriers affect the quality of female students’ education. Many STEM workforce development programs, such as the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, are committed to improving the nation’s diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI) efforts, enabling technical education through hands-on team-based learning (TBL) environments. The purpose of this study was to take a holistic approach to assess how gender DEI in STEM team environments influence the quality of female students’ learning outcomes and experiences. The socio-ecological framework, guided by feminist standpoint theory, was used to explore how the macro- and micro-levels affect female team members. Through a mixed-methods approach, this work presents two studies: 1) a qualitative document analysis (QDA) that analyzes STEM programs’ recruitment documents and assesses how gender DEI is integrated into STEM programs’ student-centric policies, and 2) a survey tool that analyzes how gender relates to technical task distribution and individual students’ experiences. Data analysis showed that a lack of gender DEI integration into STEM programs negatively influences students’ learning outcomes. First, almost all of the national STEM programs failed to embed gender DEI into the programmatic frameworks and strategic goals. Second, female students were statistically more likely to lead the non-technical tasks on STEM teams, reinforcing the traditional gender roles found in the literature. Also, although female students reported similar motivation levels as the male students, they were less likely to: (a) conduct technical tasks, X2 (1, N = 203) = 7.8, p = .005, (b) feel like they can lead group work and be effective, X2 (3, N = 192) = 12.9, p = .005, and (c) feel like they belong to the STEM community, X2 (5, N = 196) = 10.7, p = .05. Female students were also statistically more likely to (d) feel like an outsider, X2 (5, N = 196) = 11.8, p = .04, and (e) believe they can effectively coordinate tasks and activities of a group, X2 (3, N = 192) = 12.9, p = .005. These findings add to a growing body of literature that national efforts are not sustaining a conducive environment that promotes equitable learning experiences. The STEM workforce will fail to see its full potential until systems of inequalities are addressed at all levels of the socio-ecological system