Problems of Early Learning to Program. How to Bridge the Gap Between Pictographic and Textual Programming Styles

Abstract

Around the world, the “coding is the new literacy” thesis is beginning to be shared by an increasing number of decision-makers inside and outside national education systems. This leads to the inclusion of courses on information technology, including programming, in the curricula of school and early childhood education in various countries. In Russia, with its centralized education system, the amount of programming skills that a 9th grade graduate must master was established by the federal standard in mid-2021 and includes a certain set of initial programming skills that a student must be able to demonstrate by choosing one of the 6 full-text programming languages prescribed by the standard. Our experience shows that today the programming skills provided for by the specified standard can be successfully mastered by all primary school graduates (age 11-12), and we predict that the problem of early compulsory teaching in programming will be posed by Russian legislators and solved by the Russian education system in the near future. The main thesis of this article is that the best way to systematically teach the basics of programming to beginners of all ages, including elementary school students, is to consistently use the three approaches - icon-based, block-based, and text-based - provided that there is a methodological and technological continuity of software environments that support these three approaches. This continuity can be achieved by creating a consistent family of multiple learning environments. The article describes the experience of developing and using such a family of three software environments for the system of preschool and primary education in Russia, as well as for the system of teacher training in universities.