Teaching Coding in K-12 Schools: Research and Application

420 Pages·2023·17.985 MB·English

by  Therese Keane, Andrew E. Fluck

Therese Keane
Andrew E. Fluck   Editors
Teaching
Coding in
K-12 Schools
Research and Application
Teaching Coding in K-12 Schools
Therese Keane • Andrew E. Fluck
Editors
Teaching Coding in K-12
Schools
Research and Application
Editors
Therese Keane Andrew E. Fluck
School of Education School of Education
La Trobe University University of Tasmania
Victoria, VIC, Australia Launceston, TAS, Australia
ISBN 978-3-031-21969-6 ISBN 978-3-031-21970-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21970-2
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Foreword
The computers introduced into schools, colleges and universities from the 1980s
and 1990s were very different from the computers that we see in those institutions
today. One could ask – is this important? In this regard, certainly there are points
worth considering. If computers are not new to education, and have been in educa-
tional institutions for more than 30 or 40 years, are educators now familiar with the
functionality and application of computers for teaching and learning? If computers
offer different functionalities and applications from those 30 or 40 years ago, does
this mean that educators have kept pace with the changes? If computers are now
more widely accessible than they were 30 or 40 years ago, does increased accessi-
bility mean that there is greater familiarity with the potential that computers now
offer in education? Researchers continue to discuss these questions, but the picture
indicates that ‘yes’ is not always the simple answer to those three questions.
Familiarity, keeping pace and maintaining awareness of applications of computers
in teaching and learning are outcomes that appear not always to have kept pace with
computer developments. Arguably, a part of the reason for that differential of keep-
ing pace has been due to the focus that educational policies and practices – nation-
ally, regionally and locally – have maintained during the past 40 years. In some
ways, when comparing computers with those 30 or 40 years ago, there are similari-
ties as well as differences. A focus on similarities has often been lacking in educa-
tional policies and practice across the age range – on computing, programming and
computational thinking. In that regard, this book offers ways forward, to re-consider
and re-focus policies and practices.
What has happened during the past 30 or 40 years is that computers have become
much more widely used and accepted by many individuals. However, computers
have become accepted to the point where many individuals worldwide can now be
considered as ‘consumers’; there is direct acceptance of applications of computers,
both the hardware (including peripherals) and software (including online resources)
for teaching and learning needs. Over the next 30 years, it is fundamentally impor-
tant in my view, in the view of authors in this book and in the view of UNESCO that
individuals become ‘producers’ with regard to computers. The current focus on
developing computer education and informatics for all young people is, in my view,
v
vi Foreword
an important step in that direction. We undoubtedly see the seeds of that drive within
this book. This is why this book is so fundamentally important – it shows us how to
explore the ways that education across the age spectrum can support a greater bal-
ance towards developing critical ‘producers’, and how a focus on creativity will be
developed in the longer term. The contents of this book provide an invaluable set of
guides for all educational sectors to support that crucially important endeavour.
Prof. Dr. Don Passey
Don Passey is a Professor in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster
University in the United Kingdom and is also an Honorary Professor of Amity
University in India. He is the chair of Technical Committee 3 (Education) for the
International Federation for Information Processing which has maintained strong
links with UNESCO since it was established under the auspices of UNESCO
in 1960.
Contents
1 Introduction: The Need for Programming and Computational
Thinking from Early Childhood Education Through
to Secondary Schooling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Therese Keane
Part I Early Childhood Education
2 Children (Aged 3–5 Years) Learning Mathematics Through
Programming, Thinking and Doing, or Just Doing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Hanna Palmér
3 Teaching Coding in Kindergarten: Supporting Students’
Activity with Robot Coding Toys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Jessica F. Shumway, Jody Clarke-Midura, Victor R. Lee,
Deborah Silvis, Lise E. Welch Bond, and Joseph S. Kozlowski
4 Programming Environments for the Development
of Computational Thinking in Preschool Education:
A Systematic Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Konstantina Louka and Stamatios Papadakis
Part II Elementary/Primary School
5 Developing Computational Fluency via Multimedia Stories . . . . . . . 63
Rosa Bottino, Augusto Chioccariello, and Laura Freina
6 Scaffolding Engagement with Educational Technologies
to Develop Computational Thinking in Year 1 Girls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Fiona Mayne and Belinda Bath
7 Enhancing Computational Thinking Through App Design
in Primary Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Jane Batham
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viii Contents
8 Program, Learn and Play: A Course of Extracurricular Activities
in Scratch Programming for Students in Grades 3–6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Ludmila Bosova
9 Integrating Programming in Other Subjects at Primary Level:
Tool, Glue or Ideation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Linda Mannila
10 Introducing Programming Concepts Through the Bebras Tasks
in the Primary Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Lina Vinikienė, Valentina Dagienė, and Gabrielė Stupurienė
11 Supporting Primary Students with Disabilities and Neurological
Differences in Developing Digital Thinking Skills Through
an Inclusive Game-Making Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Matthew Harrison
12 Game Making and Coding Fluency in a Primary Computing
Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Mick Chesterman
Part III Secondary/High School
13 The Problem with Programming: An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Christina Chalmers
14 Expanding Teacher Capacity and Student Engagement
in Digital Literacies in the Primary Classroom:
An Informal Explorative Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Jonathon Mascorella and Maria Emmi
15 Why and How to Teach Physical Computing: Research
and Practice in Computer Science Education
at Secondary Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Mareen Grillenberger
16 Coding Across the Curriculum: Challenges for Non-specialist
Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Karen Woo and Garry Falloon
17 Teaching High School Students Artificial Intelligence
by Programming Chatbots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Jayanti Nayak, Therese Keane, Tanya Linden, and Andreea Molnar
18 Teaching Coding and Computational Thinking with Model Train
Robotics: Social Factors That Motivate Students to Learn
Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Takahisa Furuta, Yoshiaki Okugi, and Gerald Knezek
Contents ix
19 Initial Steps in Teaching Python at Lower Secondary School
Using the Platform Codeboard.io . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Miroslava Černochová, Hasan Selcuk, and Martin Beneš
20 Creating Mobile Applications with App Inventor Adopting
Computational Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Christiane Gresse von Wangenheim, Nathalia da Cruz Alves,
Miriam Nathalie Fortuna Ferreira, and Jean C. R. Hauck
21 Learning Computational Thinking in Secondary School (Year 8)
in Germany in International Comparison:
Results from ICILS 2018 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Amelie Labusch and Birgit Eickelmann
22 Computational Thinking in Pre-vocational Education:
A Focus on Coding Unplugged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Diane van der Linde-Koomen, Herma Jonker, and Joke Voogt
23 A Case of Girls Building Robots or Robots Building the Girls? . . . . 343
Milorad Cerovac and Therese Keane
24 Applying Hybrid Programming in High Schools:
An Empirical Study Analysing Teachers’ Opinions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Djordje M. Kadijevich
25 Hybrid VR Programming: Extending the Notional
Machine for C++ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Peer Stechert and Goran Vukovic
26 Cognitive Influences on Learning Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Jason Zagami
27 Where Next for Coding in Schools? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Andrew E. Fluck
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
About the Editors and Contributors
Editors
Therese Keane For over 25 years, Professor Therese Keane has been a champion

for empowering girls in STEM. Currently she is the Associate Dean of Research and
Industry Engagement, and Professor of STEM Education at La Trobe University’s
School of Education in Melbourne Australia. Her passion and many achievements
have been acknowledged by her peers in her receiving numerous international,
national and state awards. She has worked in a variety of school settings where she
has taught IT and led in K-12 education as the director of ICT. Her Doctorate in
Education focused on ICT leadership in schools. Therese has served on several
state, national and international boards, including chair of the Australian Computer
Society’s (ACS) ICT Educators Committee, Australian Council of Computers in
Education (ACCE) and Australian representative for the International Federation of
Information Processing (IFIP) Technical Committee on Education (TC3). Currently,
she is the vice chair for TC3 – WG3.3 – “Research into Educational Applications of
Information Technologies”. Therese is deputy editor of Education and Information
Technologies – the official journal of the IFIP Technical Committee on Education
covering the complex relationship between information and communication tech-
nologies and education. Throughout her career, Therese has also been an office
holder in three professional teaching associations, the Victorian Information
Technology Teachers Association (VITTA), Information and Communications
Technology in Education Victoria (ICTEV), and the Digital Learning & Teaching
Victoria (DLTV). Therese has presented numerous seminars and workshops for
teachers involved in the teaching of information technology. She has written 16
textbooks in all units of VCE Senior Information Technology in Victoria since 1995
and has worked with the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA)
in the development of the VCE IT Study Design and various roles associated with
VCE assessment over the past 25 years. Therese has been involved in the provision
of professional development to ICT teachers and research into the use of technol-
ogy, gender inequalities in STE-based subjects, robotics in education, and
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