Implementing Blended Learning in K-12 Programming Course: Lesson Design and Student Feedback

Computational thinking (CT) has been widely integrated into K-12 classrooms through programming education. Numerous initiatives have been developed to lower down the threshold for learning programming, yet instructors may still feel ill-prepared. Blended learning approach, a combination of student-centered learning and teacher-centered instruction, has proved to be an effective teaching approach for K-12 programming courses. With the purpose of providing practical insights for the design of blended programming lessons, this study introduced an instructional unit of a K-12 programming course in a secondary school in China. It elaborated the course regarding lesson design, learning assessment, and course evaluation. The course contains 9 plugged sessions and 24 unplugged sessions, and each session consists of 1) a preview, 2) hands-on activities, and 3) a lesson summary. Student learning was evaluated with performance-based assessments, and a questionnaire was employed to collect students’ feedback for the course. The results indicated that students with low performance were the benefit the most from the course, and students tended to like visual programming tool and stage-mode learning format. Also, students with different learning backgrounds showed different preferences for the instructional elements. Suggestions are provided for further research and course design practices.