Students Learning to Program by Developing Games: Results of a Year-long Project in Primary School Settings

Abstract

Aim/PurposeThe purpose of this study was to examine whether the authoring of computer games in a mainstream primary school setting can support the learning of game design and programming concepts. Background Despite the benefits for students when they learn how to program and the significant body of research regarding this matter, these benefits are still under debate, and the teaching of programming has a relatively undeveloped pedagogy. With this in mind, a project was designed and implemented, having constructionism as its theoretical framework. Also, Microsoft's Kodu Game Lab was used for the development of students' games. MethodologyThe project lasted for almost a school year (fifty two-hour sessions) and the target group was fifth-grade students (ages 10-11). A total of 138 students participated, coming from five schools in Athens, Greece. Students were divided into three groups. While all groups worked in pairs, to the first there was no teachers' guidance, to the second there was limited teachers' guidance, and to the third, a combination of teacher-led and pair work was used. Each group developed three games of escalating complexity and a total of 207 games were analyzed. Data were collected by analyzing students' games and with a short questionnaire. ContributionThe study contributes to the debate surrounding the pedagogy of computer game authoring as a tool for teaching programming. That is because few studies have examined the above in mainstream settings, having as a target group primary school students. Furthermore, the present study is in contrast to most studies which involved intensive research projects, since it lasted for almost a school year. Learning to Program by Developing Games 476Findings It was found that the most commonly used programming concept was conditions, followed by variables and loops, while Boolean logic and functions were the least used ones. The most problematic concepts proved to be Boolean logic and loops, closely followed by functions. The least problematic concepts were conditions and variables. Also, the number of programming concepts that were used was increasing in each game, while the errors were decreasing. All in all, students' final games fall into the relational level according to a modified version of the SOLO taxonomy.While the findings indicated that, as well as learning some basic programming concepts, students enjoyed the activity and demonstrated positive attitudes to learning programming by developing games; it was also found that the teaching method did not have any effect on the learning outcomes nor in their views for game authoring. Recommendations for PractitionersExtended projects can be considered for teaching programming to primary school students, using visual programming tools that allow the development of games. The classes' teachers can undertake the task to teach programming if they are properly trained. The SOLO taxonomy can be used for assessing students' games. Future ResearchFuture studies can examine a variety of game-like prog...

Using 360˚ Videos for Teaching Volleyball Skills to Primary School Students

“…Yet, in line with previous studies (e.g., Chang et al, 2019;Huang et al, 2019;Lee et al, 2017), we found that students were more motivated to learn than in conventional teaching and had a more enjoyable learning experience. Consequently, motivation offers a plausible explanation for our results, as it directly (and positively) affects the learning outcomes in almost all teaching subjects (Fokides, 2017;Fokides & Atsikpasi, 2018). The same applies for enjoyment; it is as a rather common finding in most research regarding the educational uses of 360 o videos, positively correlated (together with motivation) with the learning outcomes (e.g., Chang et al, 2019;Huang et al, 2019;Rasheed et al, 2015).…”

Bilişim Teknolojileri Öğretmenlerinin Kodlama Öğretimine İlişkin Görüşleri: Manisa Örneği

“…When the methods used by teachers are examined in the literature, it is seen that the demonstration method is used frequently (Akbıyık & Seferoğlu, 2012). Additionally, it is seen that teaching by giving game programming tasks to students is beneficial (Fokides, 2017;Jenson & Droumeva, 2016;Nouri, Norén, & Skog, 2018). In addition, teaching methods such as digital story writing (Hansen et al, 2016) and mobile application development (John & Rani, 2015) are seen to be applied.…”

“…Birçok alanın öğretiminde olduğu gibi bilgisayar bilimleri eğitimi ve kodlama öğretiminde de farklı yaklaşımlar uygulanmaktadır. Alanyazında, bilgisayar bilimleri eğitiminde oyun programlama yaklaşımının sıklıkla denendiği (Fokides, 2017;Jenson ve Droumeva, 2016), araç kitleriyle öğretimin yapıldığı (Arabacıoğlu, Bülbül ve Filiz, 2007;Raab, Rasala ve Proulx, 2000), öğrencilerin öğrenme nesneleri tasarladığı (Abad, 2008), dijital hikâye yazdığı (Hansen ve diğ., 2016), mobil uygulama geliştirdiği (John ve Rani, 2015) çalışmalar görülmektedir. Ayrıca robot programlama (Ersoy, Madran ve Gülbahar 2011), e-öğrenme ortamında probleme dayalı öğrenme (Bashir ve Hoque, 2016), Alice programlama aracının kullanımı ve nörodidaktik yöntemler (Sabitzer, 2011) önerilen yaklaşımlar olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır.…”

“…Alanyazında bilgisayar bilimleri eğitiminde kullanılan öğretim yöntemleri değerlendirildiğinde, oyun programlama (Fokides, 2017;Jenson ve Droumeva, 2016), dijital hikâye yazma (Hansen ve diğ., 2016), mobil uygulama geliştirme (John ve Rani, 2015) gibi uygulamaların yapıldığı görülmektedir. Alanyazındaki çalışmalarda ayrıca, öğretmenlerin kavramların öğretiminde oyun programlama yöntemini faydalı buldukları ve gösterip yaptırma yöntemini sıklıkla kullandıkları belirtilmiştir (Akbıyık ve Seferoğlu, 2012;Nouri, Norén ve Skog, 2018).…”

“…As a result of computer science education gaining such importance, many tools that can be used in this field have emerged, and researches have started question as to how this education can be delivered in the most effective way (Fokides, 2017;Jenson & Droumeva, 2016;Hansen, Iveland, Carlin, Harlow, & Franklin, 2016). At this point, it would be beneficial to examine the opinions of the information technology (ICT) teachers about how to deliver computer science education more effectively, because they have experience both about the tools they use in coding teaching and also teaching and assessment methods.…”