Starting with scratch in CS 1

Wolz, Ursula; Leitner, Henry H.; Malan, David J.; Maloney, John

doi:10.1145/1508865.1508869

Cited by 25 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…In addition to these K-12 level studies, there were some initial attempts to use Scratch as a programming environment for novices at the university level (Malan, 2010;Malan and Leitner, 2007;Rizvi & Humphries, 2012;Wolz, Leitner, Malan, & Maloney, 2009). Nevertheless, they were restricted either in terms of methodology or the purpose for using Scratch as an instructional tool.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preservice Teachers’ Introduction to Computing

Çetin

2016

Journal of Educational Computing Research

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Computational thinking has been gaining new impetus in the academic community and in K-12 level education. Scratch is a visual programming environment that can be utilized to teach and learn introductory computing concepts. There are some studies investigating the effectiveness of Scratch for K-12 level education. However, studies that have been conducted at the collegiate level, especially in the context of preservice computing teacher education, are very rare. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of Scratch-based instruction on preservice teachers' understanding of basic programming concepts and their attitudes toward programming. In the present study, a mixed method design was utilized. In the first phase of the study, the data were collected using an achievement test, a practice test, and a computer programming attitude scale. In the second phase of the study, data were collected through a semistructured interview. The results of the study indicated that preservice teachers in Scratch-based instruction had significantly better understanding of basic computing concepts. Qualitative data indicated that Scratch-based instruction was useful in constructing a more meaningful learning environment for preservice teachers. The results of this study have implications for researchers and preservice computing teacher educators when designing an introductory computing course.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preservice Teachers’ Introduction to Computing

Çetin

2016

Journal of Educational Computing Research

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“…Though majority of Scratch users are at the middle and highschool levels, Scratch has been used in a few formal courses at the college level [20]. In [9], Scratch was used in a CS1 course for a short period (1-2 weeks) before transitioning to more advanced programming constructs in Java.…”

Section: Scratch In Cs0/cs1mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scratch has been found to facilitate the learning of programming and computer science concepts [11]. It has been shown to have: a "low floor" (easy to get started with); "high ceiling" (complex projects can be built); and "wide walls" (can address variety of topics and themes) [13], especially at the middle school level, with some attempts to use it in a CS1 course at the college-level [20]. It has been recommended for novice programmers for its ease of use, as well as for advanced programmers for its facility to build complex projects [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most Scratch studies (except 2 or 3 such as Malan's [20]) are done in middle school while ours is at the college level. We determine the effectiveness of Scratch from two perspectives: i) as a scaffold for novices to learn basic programming concepts and transition to C++, and ii) as a tool for advanced learners to remain engaged with content.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of a 2-week scratch intervention in CS1 on learners with varying prior knowledge

Mishra

Balan

Iyer

et al. 2014

Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Innovation &Amp; Technology in Computer Science Education - ITiCSE '14

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A large CS1 class often needs to provide scaffolding for novices while keeping advanced learners engaged. Scratch has been shown to be suitable to address a diverse set of requirements. In this study, we determine whether a 2-week Scratch intervention in a CS1 course is useful from two perspectives: i) as a scaffold for novices to learn basic programming concepts and transition to C++, and ii) as a tool for advanced learners to remain engaged and do challenging work. We conducted a field study of 332 first-year undergraduate engineering students, two-thirds of whom were novices. We analyzed student performance on exams and Scratch projects. We administered a survey to determine student perceptions on the usefulness of Scratch. Some key findings of our study are: (i) Novices were able to catch-up to advanced learners in Scratch questions of the type 'Predict the output' and 'Debug the program', (ii) Projects by advanced learners reached 80% of the complexity of 'most loved projects' on the Scratch website, and (iii) 69% of students perceived Scratch to be useful for learning programming concepts and transitioning to C++.

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“…It builds students' confidence in their own abilities, allowing them to quickly develop systems. It provides a good platform for moving to more traditional languages such as Java [11]. Scratch has proved extremely popular with educators and students alike [6].…”

Section: Rationale For Sensementioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching UbiComp with sense

Richards

Smith

2010

Proceedings of the 6th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Extending Boundaries

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Modern computer science education should take account of recent advances in smart and ubiquitous computing technologies. Ubicomp shows great potential to attract new learners. However, novice students find it needlessly difficult to learn concepts with existing programming languages, let alone the additional demands of programming sensors, actuators and networks. We have developed Sense, an extension to the graphical programming language Scratch, and an associated sensor/actuator board. Together, these will allow novice undergraduate students to quickly develop their own smart devices while learning the fundamentals of programming. Students will first study with Sense in 2011 but developmental feedback has been positive.

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Starting with scratch in CS 1

Cited by 25 publications

References 4 publications

Preservice Teachers’ Introduction to Computing

Preservice Teachers’ Introduction to Computing

Effect of a 2-week scratch intervention in CS1 on learners with varying prior knowledge

Teaching UbiComp with sense

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