Teachers' Experiences of using PRIMM to Teach Programming in School

Abstract

PRIMM is an approach to teaching programming at K-12 that facilitates the structure of lessons in a purposeful way. PRIMM stands for Predict-Run-Investigate-Modify-Make, and draws on recent research in programming education. In particular the PRIMM approach recognises that starting with existing code and being able to explain what it does gives novice programmers the confidence to write their own programs. Using the PRIMM approach, teachers can devise scaffolded and targeted tasks for students which helps engender understanding, particularly for those who may have previously struggled to understand programming concepts. In this techniques paper, we consider what PRIMM is, and the experiences that teachers have had of using the structure in the classroom. PRIMM materials have been trialled in schools in a study involving around 500 students aged 11-14. From interviews with nine participating teachers we have found that teachers particularly value the collaborative approach taken in PRIMM, the structure given to lessons, and the way that resources can be differentiated. We propose that PRIMM is an approach that could be adopted in all phases of programming education as well as in teacher training.

Proceedings of the 9th Computer Science Education Research Conference

“…There has been some interesting work by others on related, but different, teaching approaches [11,28,39]. As I have not yet given those papers the thought deserved, I will refrain from commenting here, but instead merely recommend those papers to the reader.…”

Finnish teachers’ and students’ programming motivation and their role in teaching and learning computational thinking

“…Choi's (2013) study demonstrated a similar change: pre-service teachers' initial thoughts on programming being, for instance, difficult, scary, and perplexing changed to a level of enjoyment, accomplishment, and confidence after gaining programming experience. However, teachers have been shown to have positive attitudes especially toward specific pedagogical solutions (e.g., lesson structure plans) in programming education (Sentance et al, 2019), suggesting that the nature of the manifold CT contents being adopted by teachers are important to consider. Similarly, CT has been shown to include specific substances that can be stronger causes of uncertainty for teachers (Rich et al, 2021).…”

“…To support teachers' overall teaching success in CT instruction, it can be vital to also consider how comfortably teachers can adopt different kinds of CT-related pedagogical contents (Sentance et al, 2019;Rich et al, 2021) and what role teachers' CT self-efficacy can play in professional learning in CT (see also Mühling et al, 2010;Yukselturk and Altiok, 2017;Garvin et al, 2019). Future teacher training and research should thus also critically and meticulously consider teachers' subject and pedagogical content knowledge in CT (see Mäkitalo et al, 2019;Kong et al, 2020).…”

Teaching computer programming with PRIMM: a sociocultural perspective

“…Drawing on both existing research into the learning of computer programming, and with our Vygotskian lens, we have developed and trialled a framework for teaching programming called PRIMM (Predict-Run-Investigate-Modify-Make) (Sentance and Waite, 2017;Sentance, Waite, and Kallia, 2019). PRIMM is a method of teaching programming that counters the known problem of novices writing programs before they are yet able to read them, and focuses on students talking about how and why programs work before they tackle editing and writing their own programs.…”