{"title":"How Pupils Classify Digital Artifacts","authors":"I. Diethelm, T. Brinda, Nina Schneider","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3137079","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3137079","url":null,"abstract":"The perception and previous knowledge of pupils are an essential but rarely explored part of the arrangement of computer science education. Most pupils use computers, smartphones and the Internet on a daily basis and develop their own understandings of them, but these conceptions are hardly integrated in their education. According to the idea of educational reconstruction, the pupils' processes of learning will be supported and made easier and their cognitive representations of the subject matter will get more interconnected and applicable, if their understandings are included in the educational processes. Therefore, we adopted an early study from biology education and investigated how 386 German pupils of different school types arranged, categorized and distinguished 23 terms related to the digital world (eg. \"computer\", \"mobile phone\", \"Facebook\"). We also asked, if any of the terms does not belong to the other terms in the opinion of each respondent, and found that robots and 3D were the most frequent terms not to belong to any of the others.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"63 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130924701","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Addressing Teaching Practices Regarding Software Quality: Testing and Debugging in the Classroom","authors":"Tilman Michaeli, R. Romeike","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3137087","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3137087","url":null,"abstract":"Software quality is seen as an integral part of CS education. Two of the key concepts concerning software quality are testing and debugging. Testing is considered important to verify the students' underlying model or algorithm. Debugging is an approach related to computational thinking which is distinct from general programming skills and fosters abilities like logical reasoning and independent problem solving. However, approaches, teaching materials, and studies on how to teach and integrate those concepts effectively into K12 classrooms are lacking. Therefore, both debugging and testing are often neglected in teaching practice, despite them being represented in many (but not all) curricula. In the following, we present a research project with the intention of providing adequate and evaluated strategies for addressing software quality in the classroom and its rationale. For this purpose, the model of Beizer's testing levels has been utilized and didactically transposed, thereby making it applicable to CS education in K12. The resulting categories may provide a basis for teaching and research.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129555442","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A theory based tool set for analysing reading processes in the context of learning programming","authors":"Lea Budde, B. Heinemann, Carsten Schulte","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3137077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3137077","url":null,"abstract":"Several authors have argued for the role of reading code in programming education. The literature suggests e.g. cognitive overload as a significant problem and discusses the need to divide learning programming in sub-tasks, and to explicitly acknowledge and train different aspects of reading skills, e.g. reading for general understanding, tracing, and debugging. In this paper, we present a theoretical analysis that results in a tool design that correlates observable gaze behaviour to a theoretical model of source code comprehension. This allows to link observable reading behaviour (gaze) to internal cognitive processes of source code understanding, and thus to research the effects of different reading tasks and approaches on learning.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128760428","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Problem Solving and Algorithmic Development with Flowcharts","authors":"Renske Smetsers-Weeda, S. Smetsers","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3137080","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3137080","url":null,"abstract":"Programming, where problem solving and coding come together, is cognitively demanding. Whereas traditional instructional strategies tend to focus on language constructs, the problem solving skills required for programming remain underexposed. In an explorative small-scale case study we explore a \"thinking-first\" framework combined with stepwise heuristics, to provide students structure throughout the entire programming process. Using unplugged activities and high-level flowcharts, students are guided to brainstorm about possible solutions and plan their algorithms before diving into (and getting lost in) coding details. Thereafter, a stepwise approach is followed towards implementation. Flowcharts support novice programmers to keep track of where they are and give guidance to what they need to do next, similar to a road-map. High-level flowcharts play a key role in this approach to problem solving. They facilitate planning, understanding and decomposing the problem, communicating ideas in an early stage, step-wise implementation and evaluating and reflecting on the solution (and approach) as a whole.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129913149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bern Martens, Bart Demoen, Febe Karpez, D. Vandenhove, K. V. Loon
{"title":"Bringing Algorithms to Flemish Classrooms: Teaching the Teachers, and some Students","authors":"Bern Martens, Bart Demoen, Febe Karpez, D. Vandenhove, K. V. Loon","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3137070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3137070","url":null,"abstract":"Computer science (CS) is currently not yet part of the official curriculum imposed by the Flemish government for secondary education. However, an increasing number of schools offer the topic, or elements of it, in a \"free\" course, especially in grades 7 and 8, and also in scientific and/or technical profiles in grades 9 to 12. The teachers who develop and teach these courses usually do so with great effort and enthusiasm, but a limited background in CS. The universities of Leuven, Gent and Hasselt, are organising several series of workshops in which teachers' skills and knowledge on Physical Computing and Algorithms are enhanced during in-service training. The approach taken is presented, as well as the results of a small scale teaching experiment on algorithmics in grade 12, and plans for future activities and research in this area.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"433 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125759134","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Measurement and Visualization of Programming Processes of Primary School Students in Scratch","authors":"Alexandra Funke, Katharina Geldreich","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3137086","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3137086","url":null,"abstract":"Currently in many countries efforts are undertaken to bring programming education into the early levels of childhood education, like primary school or even kindergarten. Therefore, it is becoming more and more important to gain insight into which teaching methods and content would be appropriate for young students of primary levels. Besides the analysis of the results of such courses, it is particularly interesting, in which way the programming processes of the children take place and if there are distinguishable types of young programming learners. To illustrate the processes and to explore differences and special features of the individual approaches we developed a new visualization technique for the example of the programming language Scratch.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"5091 4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124110357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Learning Abstraction in Computer Science: A Gender Perspective","authors":"D. Statter, M. Armoni","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3137081","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3137081","url":null,"abstract":"In a previous study, we investigated a framework for teaching abstraction in computer science (CS) in the context of an introductory CS course for 7th-grade students. The framework was found effective for developing CS abstraction skills. In this paper, we describe a study that investigated teaching abstraction in CS to 7th-grade students through the perspective of gender. Specifically, we compared the CS abstraction abilities of boys and girls taking the introductory CS course in 7th grade (using the Scratch environment). We also examined the difference in the effect of the teaching strategy on CS abstraction abilities between boys and girls. Our findings show a significant advantage of girls over boys regarding several aspects of CS abstraction. We also found that the framework for teaching CS abstraction, which was already established in our previous study as effective in the context of an introductory course for 7th-grade students, has an enhanced effect in this context when it comes to girls. This enhancement was manifested by a better overall performance by the girls, when comparing boys and girls that took an introductory CS course in which this framework was used. It was also manifested by the girls' deeper and more reliable perception of CS. We conjecture that this framework has the potential to affect girls' self-efficacy, and as a result to create a positive effect by encouraging and motivating girls to pursue CS education beyond this introductory course. That is, this framework has the potential to contribute to solving the issue of underrepresentation of females at the different stages of CS education, or in other words, to widening the CS pipeline for females.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"42 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127505556","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Computing At School: 10 Years On","authors":"Simon Humphreys","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3144572","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3144572","url":null,"abstract":"Computing At School (CAS) was formed about ten years ago. Meanwhile CAS has become a lively community supporting computing teachers' continuous professional development. In this talk, I will pick up from where Simon Peyton Jones left when he spoke at WiPSCE in 2015. I will sketch some challenges for both CAS and our research community.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"54 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114576565","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Settings and Contexts for Physical Computing in CS Classes","authors":"M. Przybylla, R. Romeike","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3150995","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3150995","url":null,"abstract":"With the recent integration of physical computing in computer science school curricula, teachers need to acquire knowledge and methods in this relatively new branch of computer science and undertake initial attempts at teaching. In a case study, we interviewed six teachers about their classroom experience with physical computing. Here, we describe the teaching scenarios they developed.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"82 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122594567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gender Differences in Scratch Programs of Primary School Children","authors":"Alexandra Funke, Katharina Geldreich","doi":"10.1145/3137065.3137067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3137065.3137067","url":null,"abstract":"It is commonly believed that the attitudes towards programming are strongly dependent on gender among adolescents or adults. Regarding younger children, these differences in the attitudes might be less relevant. To investigate this, we have analyzed the learning outcomes of an introductory programming course for primary school children. The three-day course was designed specifically for 4th-grade students (ages 9-10) and taught four times up to now Fifty-eight children (26 girls and 32 boys) have participated from May to August 2016. During these courses, the children have developed 127 Scratch projects. We found that boys and girls had used different block types to develop their programs. It also showed that girls and boys created very different types of programs. This paper presents the course design; the methodology of the qualitative analysis and the results in detail.","PeriodicalId":423233,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125422280","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}