A New Teaching Pattern Based on PBL and Visual Programming in Computational Thinking Course

Abstract

As a fundamental and introductory course in undergraduate education, Computer Basis aims to cultivate the scientific computational thinking mode and the ability of solving problem for students who are not the computer majors. In this study, a new pedagogical method named PBL-VP combining the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and the visual programming Blockly was applied to Computer Basis. This paper described a classical example about problem solving to explain the teaching process of the PBL-VP in detail. The process of problem solving was divided into several operable steps to gradually guide students to analyze problems, provide solutions and establish scientific logic thinking. Blockly was introduced to obscure the grammar of programming language and implement the algorithm visually. Finally, we evaluated the effectiveness of the PBL-VP teaching method on student learning by a contrast test. The empirical results proved that students in the class with PBL-VP earned higher final grades and the teaching method we proposed played a positive role in computer general education.