In this paper we present the background, aims and methodology of the ScratchMaths (SM) project, which has designed curriculum materials and professional development (PD) to support mathematical learning through programming for pupils aged between 9 and 11 years. The project was framed by the particular context of computing in the English education system alongside the long history of research and development in programming and mathematics. In this paper, we present a Bframework for action^(diSessa and Cobb, Journal of the Learning Sciences, 13, 77-103, 2004) following design research that looked to develop an evidence-based curriculum intervention around carefully chosen mathematical and computational concepts. As a first step in teasing out factors for successful implementation and addressing any gap between our design intentions and teacher delivery, we focus on two key foundational concepts within the SM curriculum: the concept of algorithm and of 360°total turn. We found that our intervention as a whole enabled teachers with different backgrounds and Digit Exp Math Educ (2017) 3:115-138 DOI 10.1007/s40751-017-0028-x The research reported in this paper forms part of a larger project, the ScratchMaths project 2014-17 funded by the Educational Endowment Foundation. The project is being independently evaluated following a randomized control trial model involving over 100 primary schools across England. Department of Informatics Education, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia levels of confidence to tailor the delivery of the SM in ways that can make these challenging concepts more accessible for both themselves and their pupils.

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This paper focuses on a major part of a two-year intervention, ScratchMaths (SM), which seeks to exploit programming for the learning of mathematics. The SM hypothesis is that given the right design of curriculum, pedagogy and digital tools, pupils can engage with and express important mathematical ideas through computer programming. We describe the overall design of SM and as an illustration of the approach, we elaborate a more detailed description of the specific SM activities that seek to harness the programming concept of 'objects communicating with one another' for the exploration of the mathematical concept of place value through a syntonic approach to learning. We report a case study of how these activities were implemented in two primary classes. Our findings constitute a kind of existence theorem: that with carefully designed and sequenced learning activities and appropriate teacher support, this approach can allow pupils to engage with difficult mathematical ideas in new, meaningful and generalisable ways. We also point to the challenges which emerged through this process in ensuring pupils encounter these mathematical ideas.

The long‐standing debate into the potential benefit of developing mathematical thinking skills through learning to program has been reignited with the widespread introduction of programming in schools across many countries, including England where it is a statutory requirement for all pupils to be taught programming from 5 years old. Algorithm is introduced early in the English computing curriculum, yet there is limited knowledge of how young pupils view this concept. This paper explores pupils' (aged 10–11) understandings of algorithm following their engagement with 1 year of ScratchMaths, a curriculum designed to develop computational and mathematical thinking skills through learning to program. A total of 181 pupils from 6 schools undertook a set of written tasks to assess their interpretations and evaluations of different algorithms that solve the same problem, with a subset of these pupils subsequently interviewed to probe their understandings in greater depth. We discuss the different approaches identified, the evaluation criteria they used, and the aspects of the concept that pupils found intuitive or challenging, such as simplification and abstraction. The paper ends with some reflections on the implications of the research, concluding with a set of recommendations for pedagogy in developing primary pupils' algorithmic thinking.

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In the Slovak Republic recently a new type of school has been established in lower secondary education. To make the curriculum attractive regular informatics topics are included, although no one knows what the contents should be. This is a very challenging situation for educational research. In our paper we present a new conception of the subject based on an experiment with 11 year old children. We advocate an open learning project approach: our students should understand that computer use may coming in many different and surprising guises. We present six general curriculum topics and several projects, some of them based on paper and pencil work, others implemented in Comenius Logo for Windows. We plan to use Informatics as a kind of a Trojan horse to change the school-to involve teachers of subjects which have no tradition in using the computer as a tool for learning.

Abstract. In our paper, we want to present the conception of elementary programming in primary Informatics education in Slovakia and the process of its integration into ordinary classrooms. First, we will familiarize the reader with the tradition of so called 'Informatics education' in Slovakia and with the various stages of the process of its integration. We will formulate the learning objectives of the elementary informatics as a school subject in Slovakia (referring to Blaho and Salanci, 2011) and give reasons why we believe that it offers an important opportunity for developing informatics knowledge, computational thinking and problem solving skills. We will primarily focus on the presentation of our arguments why we consider programming (in the form rigorously respecting the age of the primary pupils) to be appropriate and productive constituent of learning already for this age group. Several recent research findings, presented by Ackermann (2012) and others support our position here. In the next chapter, we will present in detail the conception of elementary programming and how it is implemented in the continuing professional development (CPD) of primary teachers in Slovakia. We will examine which programming environments are being used, what kind of pedagogies and which specific learning objectives our teachers apply. We will list programming concepts and identify corresponding cognitive operations, which we find appropriate for primary pupils. Then we will present and analyse the CPD of our in-service teachers (and the position of programming in this process) which we have recently implemented in Slovakia. Another important element of our CPD strategy is the well-known Bebras contest (in Slovakia it is called 'iBobor' or 'Informatics Beaver'). In the next chapter of our paper, we will apply qualitative educational inquiry methods to examine how our conception of elementary programming has really penetrated into primary classes in Slovakia. We are also interested in how it is being received by the teachers and pupils. Through interviews with the teachers we will identify different aspects of the whole process and main risk factors, which may complicate or hinder the implementation. In the final chapter, we will study the tendency to develop informatics and programming at the primary level in the context of various research projects presented in the academic research literature. We will compare various key findings of other research projects with our own experience.

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