A Design-Based Research Approach for introducing Algorithmics and Programming to Bavarian Primary Schools: Theoretical Foundation and Didactic Implementation

Informatik soll in den kommenden Jahren stärker in die frühe Bildung integriert werden und somit den Weg in Grundschulen oder gar in Kindergärten finden. Obwohl Deutschland noch keine verbindlichen Richtlinien für den Umgang mit diesen neuen Themen entwickelt hat, erwägt das Bundesland Bayern bereits den Ausbau der Didaktik der Informatik zur Lehrerausbildung im Bereich der Grundschule. Das Erforschen von Unterrichtsmethoden und -inhalten, die sich für diesen Bereich eignen, wird somit immer notwendiger. Um die Eigenschaften praktikabler und effektiver Informatikkurse für die Primarstufe zu untersuchen, nutzen wir den Ansatz der Design-Based Research, um einen dreitägigen Programmierkurs für Dritt- und Viertklässler zu entwickeln. Dieser Beitrag beschäftigt sich vorrangig mit der theoretischen Grundlage für die Kursentwicklung, die aus dem Forschungsansatz entwickelt wurde. Ausserdem wird die konkrete didaktische Umsetzung der theoretischen Vorarbeiten in Form des Kurskonzepts ausführlich beschrieben.Computer Science (CS) is increasingly entering the early levels of childhood education, like primary school or even kindergarten. Although Germany has not yet developed mandatory guidelines for how to deal with these new topics, Bavaria seems to consider extending the field of computer science education to the primary sector in the long term. It is therefore becoming more and more necessary to gain insight into which teaching methods and content would be suitable for students at primary level. To investigate the characteristics of effective programming courses for primary schools, we developed a three-day introductory course following the design-based research approach. This article will set focus on both the theoretical foundation resulting from this specific research approach and the didactic implementation of the theoretical framework

Empirical Definition of Object-oriented Programming Competencies

International large-scale educational investigations and the focus on learners' competencies powered a veritable revolution in teaching and learning approaches as well as in educational research methodologies. In the relatively young field of computer science education research, however, there is a considerable lack of empirical studies on the definition and measurement of competencies. The central goal of the presented research project is to identify, describe, and measure competencies for object-oriented programming, in particular for implementing abstract data types. We use an automated assessment system to evaluate and score a large number of students' solutions of programming tasks. Item Response Theory analyses of the results identify subsets of tasks suitable for defining typical programming competencies. Further qualitative analyses reveal the internal structure of the competencies and allow a classification in a competency structure model. This article presents in detail our rigorous methodology and exemplary results for the empirical definition and decomposition of the competency named "Ability to implement the abstract data type Binary Search Tree"

Modelling competencies for computing education beyond 2020: a research based approach to defining competencies in the computing disciplines.

How might the content and outcomes of tertiary education programmes be described and analysed in order to understand how they are structured and function? To address this question we develop a framework for modelling graduate competencies linked to tertiary degree programmes in the computing disciplines. While the focus of our work is computing the framework is applicable to education more broadly. The work presented here draws upon the pioneering curricular document for information technology (IT2017), curricular competency frameworks, other related documents such as the software engineering competency model (SWECOM), the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), current research in competency models, and elicitation workshop results from recent computing conferences. The aim is to inform the ongoing Computing Curricula (CC2020) project, an endeavour supported by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the IEEE Computer Society. We develop the Competency Learning Framework (CoLeaF), providing an internationally relevant tool for describing competencies. We argue that this competency based approach is well suited for constructing learning environments and assists degree programme architects in dealing with the challenge of developing, describing and including competencies relevant to computer and IT professionals. In this paper we demonstrate how the CoLeaF competency framework can be applied in practice, and though a series of case studies demonstrate its effectiveness and analytical power as a tool for describing and comparing degree programmes in the international higher education landscape

Computing and Engineering (LaTiCE)

Abstract-One of the biggest challenges of the computerscience department at our university is handling the enormous heterogeneity of freshmen concerning both their previous programming abilities and their learning behaviors due to their biographical and social background. In this paper, we present the design and evaluation of a preliminary programming course based on the teaching method of Mastery Learning that is particularly suited for groups of students characterized by considerable diversity. Trained peer tutors closely guide the participants through a step-by-step programming exercise. We tested the method in several courses that ran for two and a half days four weeks before the start of lectures. We collected data from two different surveys(N = 200 and N = 300, respectively). First, we quantified the considerable differences concerning the prior experience in programming of the participants. Second, we succeeded to show that the outcome of our method is independent from different sensory preferences and different computer-usage behaviors of the students. Third, the results of the survey demonstrate that our method is suited to increasing the self-perception of programming ability. This helps freshmen to overcome initial self-doubts when beginning their CS studies

Frühe informatische Bildung - Ziele und Gelingensbedingungen für den Elementar- und Primarbereich

Die Autorinnen und Autoren spezifizieren in ihrer Expertise pädagogisch-inhaltliche Zieldimensionen informatischer Bildung im Kita- und Grundschulalter. Neben einer theoretischen Fundierung verschiedener Zielbereiche erörtern die Autorinnen und Autoren Gelingensbedingungen für eine effektive und wirkungsvolle frühe informatische Bildung in der Praxis. ... Sie beschreiben in ihrer Fachempfehlung eine Auswahl an Informatiksystemen für Kinder im Kita- und Grundschulalter und geben anhand fachlicher Kriterien Empfehlungen für besonders geeignete Informatiksysteme und deren Verwendung im Elementar- und Primarbereich. Das Schlusskapitel des Bandes beschreibt die Umsetzung dieser fachlichen Empfehlungen in den inhaltlichen Angeboten der Stiftung "Haus der kleinen Forscher" - mit und ohne Computer. (DIPF/Orig.

Frühe informatische Bildung - Ziele und Gelingensbedingungen für den Elementar- und Primarbereich

Die Autorinnen und Autoren spezifizieren in ihrer Expertise pädagogisch-inhaltliche Zieldimensionen informatischer Bildung im Kita- und Grundschulalter. Neben einer theoretischen Fundierung verschiedener Zielbereiche erörtern die Autorinnen und Autoren Gelingensbedingungen für eine effektive und wirkungsvolle frühe informatische Bildung in der Praxis. ... Sie beschreiben in ihrer Fachempfehlung eine Auswahl an Informatiksystemen für Kinder im Kita- und Grundschulalter und geben anhand fachlicher Kriterien Empfehlungen für besonders geeignete Informatiksysteme und deren Verwendung im Elementar- und Primarbereich. Das Schlusskapitel des Bandes beschreibt die Umsetzung dieser fachlichen Empfehlungen in den inhaltlichen Angeboten der Stiftung "Haus der kleinen Forscher" - mit und ohne Computer. (DIPF/Orig.