Laboratory for learning 21st century skills: training paths for pre-service primary school teachers using Scratch
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Nov 21, 2019
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Abstract
Computational Thinking (CT) is a key skill of the 21st century for everyone as it fosters the acquisition of new ways of thinking, communicating and expressing ideas, as well as new ways of taking part in the social life of a community. Several countries have launched specific policies for the introduction of computational thinking and programming in different educational contexts. Consequently, coding courses for in-service teachers have been run but, to the best of our knowledge, marginal attention has been devoted to the acquisition of coding skills in pre-service teachers. In this paper, we report the results of a coding laboratory that involved 141 future teachers. Following precise guidelines and a specific training methodology, novice programmers working in groups developed 40 educational projects using Scratch software. Results have showed that most of the participants achieved a medium-high skill level, applying appropriate planning and coding techniques for the exploitation of educational contents.
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References
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Baytak, A., & Land, S. M. (2011). An investigation of the artifacts and process of constructing computers games about environmental science in a fifth grade classroom. Educational Technology Research and Development, 59(6), 765-782. doi:10.1007/s11423-010-9184-z
Bell, S., Frey, T., & Vasserman, E. (2014). Spreading the word: introducing pre-service teachers to programming in the K12 classroom. In Proceedings of the 45th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 187-192). New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi:10.1145/2538862.2538963
Bertacchini, F., Bilotta, E., Carini, M., Gabriele, L., Pantano, P., & Tavernise, A. (2012). Learning in the smart city: A virtual and augmented museum devoted to chaos theory. In International Conference on Web-Based Learning (pp. 261-270). Heidelberg, DE: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-662-43454-3_27
Bertacchini, F., Bilotta, E., & Pantano, P. (2017). Shopping with a robotic companion. Computers in Human Behavior, 77, 382-395. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2017.02.064
Bilotta, E., Pantano, P., Bertacchini, F., Gabriele, L., Longo, G., Mazzeo, V., … Vena, S. (2007). ImaginationTOOLS (TM). A 3D Environment for Learning and Playing Music. In Eurographics Italian Chapter Conference 1, 139-144. Trento, IT.
Bocconi, S., Chioccariello, A., Dettori, G., Ferrari, A., & Engelhardt, K. (2016). Developing computational thinking in compulsory education – Implications for policy and practice, JRC Working Papers JRC104188, Joint Research Centre (Seville site).
Brennan, K. (2013). Learning computing through creating and connecting. Computer, 46(9), 52-59. doi:10.1109/MC.2013.229
Brennan, K. A., & Resnick, M. (2012). New frameworks for studying and assessing the development of computational thinking. In Proceedings of the 2012 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (Vol. 1, p. 25). Vancouver, CA. Retrieved from http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/ct/files/AERA2012.pdf
Chiu, C. F. (2014, March). Use of problem-solving approach to teach scratch programming for adult novice programmers. In Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education (pp. 710-711). New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi:10.1145/2538862.2544284
Curzon, P., Dorling, M., Ng, T., Selby, C., & Woollard, J. (2014). Developing computational thinking in the classroom: a framework. Swindon, UK: Computing at School.
Denner, J., Werner, L., & Ortiz, E. (2012). Computer games created by middle school girls: Can they be used to measure understanding of computer science concepts? Computers & Education, 58(1), 240-249. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2011.08.006
Faraco, G., & Gabriele, L. (2007). Using LabVIEW for applying mathematical models in representing phenomena. Computers & Education, 49(3), 856-872. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2005.11.025
Federici, S., Gola, E., Brau, D., & Zuncheddu, A. (2015). Are Educators Ready for Coding?. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Computer Supported Education-Volume 1 (pp. 494-500). Lisbon, Portugal: SCITEPRESS-Science and Technology Publications, Lda. doi:10.5220/0005491604940500
Foerster, K. T. (2016). Integrating programming into the mathematics curriculum: Combining scratch and geometry in grades 6 and 7. In Proceedings of the 17th annual conference on information technology education (pp. 91-96). New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi:10.1145/2978192.2978222
Gabriele, L., Marocco, D., Bertacchini, F., Pantano, P., & Bilotta, E. (2017). An educational robotics lab to investigate cognitive strategies and to foster learning in an arts and humanities course degree. International Journal of Online Engineering (iJOE), 13(04), 7-19. doi:10.3991/ijoe.v13i04.6962
Giglio, S., Gabriele, L., Tavernise, A., Pantano, P., Bilotta, E., & Bertacchini, F. (2015). Virtual museums and Calabrian Cultural Heritage: projects and challenges. In J.C. Torres et al. (Eds). 2015 Digital Heritage (Vol. 2, pp. 703-708), Granada, IEEE. doi:10.1109/DigitalHeritage.2015.7419603
Kobsiripat, W. (2015). Effects of the Media to Promote the Scratch Programming Capabilities Creativity of Elementary School Students. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 174, 227-232. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.651
Koh, K. (2013). Adolescents' information‐creating behavior embedded in digital Media practice using scratch. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(9), 1826-1841. doi:10.1002/asi.22878
Korkmaz, Ö. (2016). The Effects of Scratch-Based Game Activities on Students’ Attitudes, Self-Efficacy and Academic Achievement. International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science, 1, 16-23. doi:10.5815/ijmecs.2016.01.03
Lye, S. Y., & Koh, J. H. L. (2014). Review on teaching and learning of computational thinking through programming: What is next for K-12? Computers in Human Behavior, 41, 51-61. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.09.012
Maloney, J. H., Peppler, K., Kafai, Y., Resnick, M., & Rusk, N. (2008). Programming by choice: urban youth learning programming with scratch. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 40(1), 367-371. doi:10.1145/1352322.1352260
Maloney, J., Resnick, M., Rusk, N., Silverman, B., & Eastmond, E. (2010). The scratch programming language and environment. ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), 10(4), 16. doi:10.1145/1868358.1868363
McComas, W. F. (Ed.). (2013). The Language of Science Education: An Expanded Glossary of Key Terms and Concepts in Science Teaching and Learning. Rotterdam, NL: Springer Science & Business Media.
Monroy-Hernández, A. (2012). Designing for remixing: Supporting an online community of amateur creators (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Retrieved from https://llk.media.mit.edu/papers/andres-dissertation.pdf
Moreno, J., & Robles, G. (2016). Code to learn with Scratch. A systematic literature review. In 2016 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference, EDUCON (pp. 150-156). Abu Dhabi, UAE: IEEE. doi:10.1109/EDUCON.2016.7474546
Moreno-León, J., Robles, G., & Román-González, M. (2015). Dr. Scratch: Análisis Automático de Proyectos Scratch para Evaluar y Fomentar el Pensamiento Computacional. Revista de Educación a Distancia, 46(10), 1-23. doi:10.6018/red/46/10
Porter, L., Lee, C., Simon, B., & Guzdial, M. (2017). Preparing tomorrow's faculty to address challenges in teaching computer science. Communications of the ACM, 60(5), 25-27. doi:10.1145/3068791
Papert, S. (1984). Mindstorms, Bambini computers e creatività. Milano, IT: Emme Edizioni.
Papert, S. (1986). Constructionism: A new opportunity for elementary science education. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT, Media Laboratory, Epistemology and Learning Group.
Piaget, J. (1967). Lo sviluppo mentale del bambino. Torino, IT: Einaudi.
Repenning, A., Webb, D. C., Koh, K. H., Nickerson, H., Miller, S. B., Brand, C., …Repenning, N. (2015). Scalable game design: A strategy to bring systemic computer science education to schools through game design and simulation creation. ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), 15(2), 1-31. doi:10.1145/2700517
Quan, C. G. (2015). Student teachers evaluating and assessing SCRATCH in the Applied Linguistics classroom. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 174, 1450-1456. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.774
Román-González, M., Moreno-León, J., & Robles, G. (2019). Combining Assessment Tools for a Comprehensive Evaluation of Computational Thinking Interventions. In S. C. Kong, & H. Abelson (Eds.), Computational Thinking Education (pp. 79–98). Singapore, SG: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-981-13-6528-7_6
Sajaniemi, J. (2005). Roles of variables and learning to program. In A. Jimoyiannis (Ed.), Proceedings of the 3rd Panhellenic Conference on Didactics of Informatics. University of Peloponnese, Korinthos, Greece.
Seiter, L., & Foreman, B. (2013). Modeling the learning progressions of computational thinking of primary grade students. In Proceedings of the ninth annual international ACM Conference on International computing education research (pp. 59-66). New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi:10.1145/2493394.2493403
Tan, L., & Kim, B. (2015). Learning by Doing in the Digital Media Age. In Lin, T. B., Chen, V., & Chai, C. (Eds.), New Media and Learning in the 21st Century (pp. 181-197). Singapore, SG: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-981-287-326-2_12
Vaca-Cárdenas, L. A., Bertacchini, F., Tavernise, A., Gabriele, L., Valenti, A., Olmedo, …Bilotta, E. (2015). Coding with Scratch: The design of an educational setting for Elementary pre-service teachers. In 2015 International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning (ICL) (pp. 1171-1177). Florence, IT: IEEE. doi:10.1109/ICL.2015.7318200
Vaca-Cárdenas, L., Tavernise, A., Bertacchini, F., Gabriele, L., Valenti, A., Pantano, P., & Bilotta, E. (2016). An Educational Coding Laboratory for Elementary Pre-service Teachers: A Qualitative Approach. International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP), 6(1), 11-17. doi:10.3991/ijep.v6i1.5146
Wilson, A., Hainey, T., & Connolly, T. M. (2013). Using Scratch with primary school children: an evaluation of games constructed to gauge understanding of programming concepts. International Journal of Game-Based Learning (IJGBL), 3(1), 93-109. doi:10.4018/ijgbl.2013010107
Wilson, A., & Moffat, D. C. (2010). Evaluating Scratch to introduce younger school children to programming. In Proceedings of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group Workshop, (p. 64-75). Madrid, SP. Retrieved from http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/wilson-moffat-ppig2010-final.pdf
Wing, J. M. (2006). Computational thinking. Communications of the ACM, 49(3), 33-35. doi:10.1145/1118178.1118215
Wing, J. M. (2011). Research notebook: Computational thinking. What and why. The Link., 20-23. Retrieved from https://www.cs.cmu.edu/link/research-notebook-computational-thinking-what-and-why
Wing, J. M. (2017). Computational thinking’s influence on research and education for all. Italian Journal of Educational Technology, 25(2), 7-14. doi:10.17471/2499-4324/922
Yin, R. K. (1994). Case study research: Design and methods (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA, USA: Sage.
Armoni, M., Meerbaum-Salant, O., & Ben-Ari, M. (2015). From scratch to “real” programming. ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), 14(4), 25. doi:10.1145/2677087
Barr, D., Harrison, J., & Conery, L. (2011). Computational Thinking: A Digital Age Skill for Everyone. Learning & Leading with Technology, 38(6), 20-23.
Baytak, A., & Land, S. M. (2011). An investigation of the artifacts and process of constructing computers games about environmental science in a fifth grade classroom. Educational Technology Research and Development, 59(6), 765-782. doi:10.1007/s11423-010-9184-z
Bell, S., Frey, T., & Vasserman, E. (2014). Spreading the word: introducing pre-service teachers to programming in the K12 classroom. In Proceedings of the 45th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 187-192). New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi:10.1145/2538862.2538963
Bertacchini, F., Bilotta, E., Carini, M., Gabriele, L., Pantano, P., & Tavernise, A. (2012). Learning in the smart city: A virtual and augmented museum devoted to chaos theory. In International Conference on Web-Based Learning (pp. 261-270). Heidelberg, DE: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-662-43454-3_27
Bertacchini, F., Bilotta, E., & Pantano, P. (2017). Shopping with a robotic companion. Computers in Human Behavior, 77, 382-395. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2017.02.064
Bilotta, E., Pantano, P., Bertacchini, F., Gabriele, L., Longo, G., Mazzeo, V., … Vena, S. (2007). ImaginationTOOLS (TM). A 3D Environment for Learning and Playing Music. In Eurographics Italian Chapter Conference 1, 139-144. Trento, IT.
Bocconi, S., Chioccariello, A., Dettori, G., Ferrari, A., & Engelhardt, K. (2016). Developing computational thinking in compulsory education – Implications for policy and practice, JRC Working Papers JRC104188, Joint Research Centre (Seville site).
Brennan, K. (2013). Learning computing through creating and connecting. Computer, 46(9), 52-59. doi:10.1109/MC.2013.229
Brennan, K. A., & Resnick, M. (2012). New frameworks for studying and assessing the development of computational thinking. In Proceedings of the 2012 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (Vol. 1, p. 25). Vancouver, CA. Retrieved from http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/ct/files/AERA2012.pdf
Chiu, C. F. (2014, March). Use of problem-solving approach to teach scratch programming for adult novice programmers. In Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education (pp. 710-711). New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi:10.1145/2538862.2544284
Curzon, P., Dorling, M., Ng, T., Selby, C., & Woollard, J. (2014). Developing computational thinking in the classroom: a framework. Swindon, UK: Computing at School.
Denner, J., Werner, L., & Ortiz, E. (2012). Computer games created by middle school girls: Can they be used to measure understanding of computer science concepts? Computers & Education, 58(1), 240-249. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2011.08.006
Faraco, G., & Gabriele, L. (2007). Using LabVIEW for applying mathematical models in representing phenomena. Computers & Education, 49(3), 856-872. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2005.11.025
Federici, S., Gola, E., Brau, D., & Zuncheddu, A. (2015). Are Educators Ready for Coding?. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Computer Supported Education-Volume 1 (pp. 494-500). Lisbon, Portugal: SCITEPRESS-Science and Technology Publications, Lda. doi:10.5220/0005491604940500
Foerster, K. T. (2016). Integrating programming into the mathematics curriculum: Combining scratch and geometry in grades 6 and 7. In Proceedings of the 17th annual conference on information technology education (pp. 91-96). New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi:10.1145/2978192.2978222
Gabriele, L., Marocco, D., Bertacchini, F., Pantano, P., & Bilotta, E. (2017). An educational robotics lab to investigate cognitive strategies and to foster learning in an arts and humanities course degree. International Journal of Online Engineering (iJOE), 13(04), 7-19. doi:10.3991/ijoe.v13i04.6962
Giglio, S., Gabriele, L., Tavernise, A., Pantano, P., Bilotta, E., & Bertacchini, F. (2015). Virtual museums and Calabrian Cultural Heritage: projects and challenges. In J.C. Torres et al. (Eds). 2015 Digital Heritage (Vol. 2, pp. 703-708), Granada, IEEE. doi:10.1109/DigitalHeritage.2015.7419603
Kobsiripat, W. (2015). Effects of the Media to Promote the Scratch Programming Capabilities Creativity of Elementary School Students. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 174, 227-232. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.651
Koh, K. (2013). Adolescents' information‐creating behavior embedded in digital Media practice using scratch. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(9), 1826-1841. doi:10.1002/asi.22878
Korkmaz, Ö. (2016). The Effects of Scratch-Based Game Activities on Students’ Attitudes, Self-Efficacy and Academic Achievement. International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science, 1, 16-23. doi:10.5815/ijmecs.2016.01.03
Lye, S. Y., & Koh, J. H. L. (2014). Review on teaching and learning of computational thinking through programming: What is next for K-12? Computers in Human Behavior, 41, 51-61. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.09.012
Maloney, J. H., Peppler, K., Kafai, Y., Resnick, M., & Rusk, N. (2008). Programming by choice: urban youth learning programming with scratch. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 40(1), 367-371. doi:10.1145/1352322.1352260
Maloney, J., Resnick, M., Rusk, N., Silverman, B., & Eastmond, E. (2010). The scratch programming language and environment. ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), 10(4), 16. doi:10.1145/1868358.1868363
McComas, W. F. (Ed.). (2013). The Language of Science Education: An Expanded Glossary of Key Terms and Concepts in Science Teaching and Learning. Rotterdam, NL: Springer Science & Business Media.
Monroy-Hernández, A. (2012). Designing for remixing: Supporting an online community of amateur creators (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Retrieved from https://llk.media.mit.edu/papers/andres-dissertation.pdf
Moreno, J., & Robles, G. (2016). Code to learn with Scratch. A systematic literature review. In 2016 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference, EDUCON (pp. 150-156). Abu Dhabi, UAE: IEEE. doi:10.1109/EDUCON.2016.7474546
Moreno-León, J., Robles, G., & Román-González, M. (2015). Dr. Scratch: Análisis Automático de Proyectos Scratch para Evaluar y Fomentar el Pensamiento Computacional. Revista de Educación a Distancia, 46(10), 1-23. doi:10.6018/red/46/10
Porter, L., Lee, C., Simon, B., & Guzdial, M. (2017). Preparing tomorrow's faculty to address challenges in teaching computer science. Communications of the ACM, 60(5), 25-27. doi:10.1145/3068791
Papert, S. (1984). Mindstorms, Bambini computers e creatività. Milano, IT: Emme Edizioni.
Papert, S. (1986). Constructionism: A new opportunity for elementary science education. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT, Media Laboratory, Epistemology and Learning Group.
Piaget, J. (1967). Lo sviluppo mentale del bambino. Torino, IT: Einaudi.
Repenning, A., Webb, D. C., Koh, K. H., Nickerson, H., Miller, S. B., Brand, C., …Repenning, N. (2015). Scalable game design: A strategy to bring systemic computer science education to schools through game design and simulation creation. ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), 15(2), 1-31. doi:10.1145/2700517
Quan, C. G. (2015). Student teachers evaluating and assessing SCRATCH in the Applied Linguistics classroom. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 174, 1450-1456. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.774
Román-González, M., Moreno-León, J., & Robles, G. (2019). Combining Assessment Tools for a Comprehensive Evaluation of Computational Thinking Interventions. In S. C. Kong, & H. Abelson (Eds.), Computational Thinking Education (pp. 79–98). Singapore, SG: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-981-13-6528-7_6
Sajaniemi, J. (2005). Roles of variables and learning to program. In A. Jimoyiannis (Ed.), Proceedings of the 3rd Panhellenic Conference on Didactics of Informatics. University of Peloponnese, Korinthos, Greece.
Seiter, L., & Foreman, B. (2013). Modeling the learning progressions of computational thinking of primary grade students. In Proceedings of the ninth annual international ACM Conference on International computing education research (pp. 59-66). New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi:10.1145/2493394.2493403
Tan, L., & Kim, B. (2015). Learning by Doing in the Digital Media Age. In Lin, T. B., Chen, V., & Chai, C. (Eds.), New Media and Learning in the 21st Century (pp. 181-197). Singapore, SG: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-981-287-326-2_12
Vaca-Cárdenas, L. A., Bertacchini, F., Tavernise, A., Gabriele, L., Valenti, A., Olmedo, …Bilotta, E. (2015). Coding with Scratch: The design of an educational setting for Elementary pre-service teachers. In 2015 International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning (ICL) (pp. 1171-1177). Florence, IT: IEEE. doi:10.1109/ICL.2015.7318200
Vaca-Cárdenas, L., Tavernise, A., Bertacchini, F., Gabriele, L., Valenti, A., Pantano, P., & Bilotta, E. (2016). An Educational Coding Laboratory for Elementary Pre-service Teachers: A Qualitative Approach. International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP), 6(1), 11-17. doi:10.3991/ijep.v6i1.5146
Wilson, A., Hainey, T., & Connolly, T. M. (2013). Using Scratch with primary school children: an evaluation of games constructed to gauge understanding of programming concepts. International Journal of Game-Based Learning (IJGBL), 3(1), 93-109. doi:10.4018/ijgbl.2013010107
Wilson, A., & Moffat, D. C. (2010). Evaluating Scratch to introduce younger school children to programming. In Proceedings of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group Workshop, (p. 64-75). Madrid, SP. Retrieved from http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/wilson-moffat-ppig2010-final.pdf
Wing, J. M. (2006). Computational thinking. Communications of the ACM, 49(3), 33-35. doi:10.1145/1118178.1118215
Wing, J. M. (2011). Research notebook: Computational thinking. What and why. The Link., 20-23. Retrieved from https://www.cs.cmu.edu/link/research-notebook-computational-thinking-what-and-why
Wing, J. M. (2017). Computational thinking’s influence on research and education for all. Italian Journal of Educational Technology, 25(2), 7-14. doi:10.17471/2499-4324/922
Yin, R. K. (1994). Case study research: Design and methods (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA, USA: Sage.