Comparing Elementary Students’ Programming Success based on Programming Environment

Full Text (PDF, 735KB), PP.1-10

Views: 0 Downloads: 0

Author(s)

Monika Mladenovic 1,* Marko Rosic 2 Sasa Mladenovic 2

1. Elementary school Blatine-Skrape, Split, 21000, Croatia

2. Faculty of Science, University of Split, Split, 21000, Croatia

* Corresponding author.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijmecs.2016.08.01

Received: 8 Apr. 2016 / Revised: 2 May 2016 / Accepted: 1 Jul. 2016 / Published: 8 Aug. 2016

Index Terms

Programming, Scratch, Logo, elementary school, game based learning

Abstract

In the Republic of Croatia Informatics is an elective course in elementary school for students from 5th to 8th grade. When it comes to programming language teachers can choose between BASIC and Logo. There are a lot of new programming environments for learning and teaching programming like Scratch and also new ways of teaching programming like game based learning. This study compares attitudinal and learning outcomes of 7th-grade students programming in Logo and Scratch. The classes were normal classes, non-extracurricular activities. The questionnaire is used to measure the attitude towards programming and programming languages. The test is constructed to measure learned programming concepts in both compared programming languages Logo and Scratch. Results showed that learning Scratch first can provide a better understanding of basic programming concept for novices in elementary school than Logo.

Cite This Paper

Monika Mladenović, Marko Rosić, Saša Mladenović, "Comparing Elementary Students' Programming Success based on Programming Environment", International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science(IJMECS), Vol.8, No.8, pp.1-10, 2016. DOI:10.5815/ijmecs.2016.08.01

Reference

[1]Milne and G. Rowe, "Difficulties in Learning and Teaching Programming—Views of Students and Tutors," Education and Information Technologies, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 55 - 66, 2002.
[2]Gomes and A. J. Mendes, "Learning to Program – Difficulties and Solutions," in International conference on Engineering Education, Coimbra, Portugal, 2007.
[3]L. E. Winslow, "Programming pedagogy - a psychological overview," SIGCSE Bulletin, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 17-22, 1996.
[4]Robins, J. Rountree and N. Rountree, "Learning and Teaching Programming: A Review and Discussion," Computer Science Education, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 137 - 172, 2003.
[5]M. Guzdial, "Programming environments for novices," in Computer Science Education Research, 2004, pp. 127-155.
[6]Violino, "Time to Reboot," Communications of ACM, vol. 52, no. 4, p. 19, 2009.
[7]N. F. A. Zainal, S. Shahrani, N. F. M. Yatim, R. A. Rahman, M. Rahmat and R. Latih, "Students’ perception and motivation towards programming," in UKM Teaching and Learning Congress, 2011..
[8]S. Uludag, M. Karakus and S. W. Turner, "Implementing IT0/CS0 with Scratch, App Inventor for Android, and Lego Mindstorms," in SIGITE '11: Proceedings of the 2011 conference on Information technology education , West Point, NY, USA, 2011..
[9]Forte and M. Guzdial, "Motivation and nonmajors in computer science: identifying discrete audiences for introductory courses," Education, IEEE Transactions on, 48(2), pp. 248-253, May 2005..
[10]S. Papert, Mindstorms: children, computers, and powerful ideas, New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1980.
[11]J. Maloney, K. Peppler, Y. B. Kafai, M. Resnick and N. Rusk, "Programming by choice: urban youth learning programming with scratch," Portland, 2008.
[12]Republika Hrvatska Ministarstvo znanosti, obrazovanja i športa, "Nastavni plan i program za osnovnu školu," Ministarstvo znanosti, obrazovanja i športa, Zagreb, 2006.
[13]K. A. Peppler and Y. B. Kafai, "From SuperGoo to Scratch: exploring creative digital media production in informal learning," Learning, Media & Technology, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 149-166, 2007.
[14]J. Malan and H. H. Leitner, "Scratch for budding computer scientists," New York, 2007.
[15]C. M. Lewis, "How programming environment shapes perception, learning and goals: logo vs. scratch," New York, 2010.
[16]B. Pardamean, Evelin and Honni, "The effect of logo programming language for creativity and problem solving," in Proceedings of the 10th WSEAS international conference on E-Activities, Nanjing, China, 2001.
[17]Wilson, T. Hainey and T. Connolly, "Evaluation of Computer Games Developed by Primary School Children to Gauge Understanding of Programming Concepts," Interational Journal of Games-based Learning, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 93-109, 2013.
[18]Meerbaum-Salant, Armoni and Ben-Ari, "Learning computer science concepts with scratch," in Proceedings of the Sixth international workshop on Computing education research, Aarhus, Denmark, 2010.
[19]Meerbaum-Salan, Armon and Ben-Ari, "Habits of Programming in Scratch," Darmstadt, Germany, 2011.
[20]M. Gordo, A. Marron and O. Meerbaum-Salant, "Spaghetti for the main course?: observations on the naturalness of scenario-based programming," in Proceedings of the 17th ACM annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education, New York, 2012.
[21]M. Armoni, O. Meerbaum-Salant and M. Ben-Ari, "From Scratch to “Real” Programming," ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), vol. 14, no. 4, 2015.
[22]Kalelioğlu and Y. Gülbahar, "The Effects of Teaching Programming via Scratch on Problem Solving Skills: A Discussion from Learners’ Perspective," INFORMATICS IN EDUCATION, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 33-50, 2014.
[23]W. Dann, D. Cosgrov, D. Slater, D. Culyba and S. Cooper, "Mediated transfer: Alice 3 to Java," Proceedings of the 43rd ACM technical symposium on Computer Science Education, pp. 141-146, 2012.
[24]M. Mladenović, Ž. Žanko and S. Mladenović, "Elementary students’ attitude towards programming in the Republic of Croatia," in CIET, Split, 2014.
[25]Ž. Žanko, M. Mladenović and S. Mladenović, "Students attitude towards informatics curricula," in ICERI, Seville, 2014.
[26]S. Mladenovića, Ž. Žanko and M. Mladenović, "Elementary Students’ Motivation Towards Informatics Course," Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 174, no. 12, p. 3780–3787, 2015.
[27]White and M. Sivitanides, "An empirical investigation of the relationship between success in mathematics and visual programming courses," Journal of Information Systems Education, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 409-416, 2003.
[28]L. Cohen, L. Manion and K. Morrison, Research Methods in Education, London: Routledge, 2011.