Research Article
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Student Ability for Learning Computer Programming Languages in Primary Schools

Year 2019, , 109 - 115, 17.08.2019
https://doi.org/10.31458/iejes.591938

Abstract

Computer
Programming Languages (CPL) is known for its complexity and difficulty. It is
believed to be hard to teach and to learn also many pupils and students in CPL
courses have difficulties to master all
required competencies and skills. At the introductory
level of CPL, that problem is even more
notable. There are different approaches to improve the dropout rate at CPL
courses and to populate CPL. Recently, special visual environments for Visual
Programming Language (VPL) are being used.
Early research results show that VPL can be more efficient than classical
textual programming, students can be more motivated, less bored and not burden
with the syntax of CPL in hand, also Iraq
as a new developing county especially in education and technology not study CPL in primary and high schools. In
this study, we use visual basic for learning CPLs
at 6th grade to 9th-grade primary schools
in Iraq. We teach visual basic in four primary schools in Sulaimani city during
a course and we test the students, the
result of the test shows that the students have
the ability to learn CPL by rating 71%, also the students enjoyed with
learning CPL. Finally, the result of this paper helps us to adding CPL curriculum to primary schools as
well as to high schools.

References

  • Ala-Mutka, K. (2004). Problems in learning and teaching programming–a literature study for developing visualizations in the Codewitz-Minerva project. Codewitz needs analysis, 20.
  • Bargury, I. Z., Muller, O., Haberman, B., Zohar, D., Cohen, A., Levy, D., & Hotoveli, R. (2012). Implementing a new Computer Science Curriculum for middle school in Israel. Paper presented at the Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2012.
  • Bers, M. U., Flannery, L., Kazakoff, E. R., & Sullivan, A. (2014). Computational thinking and tinkering: Exploration of an early childhood robotics curriculum. Computers & Education, 72, 145-157.
  • Clements, D. H., & Gullo, D. F. (1984). Effects of computer programming on young children's cognition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76(6), 1051.
  • Denner, J., Werner, L., & Ortiz, E. (2012). Computer games created by middle school girls: Can they be used to measure understanding of computer science concepts? Computers & Education, 58(1), 240-249. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.08.006
  • Fessakis, G., Gouli, E., & Mavroudi, E. (2013). Problem solving by 5–6 years old kindergarten children in a computer programming environment: A case study. Computers & Education, 63, 87-97. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.11.016
  • Grgurina, N., Barendsen, E., Zwaneveld, B., van Veen, K., & Stoker, I. (2014). Computational thinking skills in dutch secondary education: exploring teacher's perspective. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 9th workshop in primary and secondary computing education.
  • Grout, V., & Houlden, N. (2014a). Taking Computer Science and Programming into Schools: The Glyndŵr/BCS Turing Project. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 141, 680-685. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.05.119
  • Grout, V., & Houlden, N. (2014b). Taking computer science and programming into schools: The Glyndŵr/BCS Turing project. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 141, 680-685. Kalelioğlu, F. (2015). A new way of teaching programming skills to K-12 students: Code. org. Computers in Human Behavior, 52, 200-210.
  • Kalelioğlu, F., & Gülbahar, Y. (2014). The effects of teaching programming via scratch on problem solving skills: a discussion from learners' perspective. Informatics in Education, 13(1).
  • Kaučič, B., & Asič, T. (2011). Improving introductory programming with Scratch? Paper presented at the MIPRO, 2011 Proceedings of the 34th International Convention.
  • Kelleher, C., Pausch, R., & Kiesler, S. (2007). Storytelling alice motivates middle school girls to learn computer programming. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems.
  • Keren, G., & Fridin, M. (2014). Kindergarten Social Assistive Robot (KindSAR) for children’s geometric thinking and metacognitive development in preschool education: A pilot study. Computers in Human Behavior, 35, 400-412. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.03.009
  • Lee, I., Martin, F., & Apone, K. (2014). Integrating computational thinking across the K--8 curriculum. Acm Inroads, 5(4), 64-71.
  • Lin, J. M.-C., Yen, L.-Y., Yang, M.-C., & Chen, C.-F. (2005). Teaching computer programming in elementary schools: A pilot study. Paper presented at the National educational computing conference.
  • Mohammed, G. S., Wakil, K., & Nawroly, S. S. (2018). The Effectiveness of microlearning to improve students’ learning ability. International Journal of Educational Research Review, 3(3), 32-38.
  • Nawzad, L., Rahim, D., & Said, K. W. (2018). The Effectiveness of Technology for Improving the Teaching of Natural Science Subjects. Indonesian Journal of Curriculum and Educational Technology Studies, 6(1), 15-21.
  • Rico, M., Martínez-Muñoz, G., Alaman, X., Camacho, D., & Pulido, E. (2011). A programming experience of high school students in a virtual world platform. International Journal of Engineering Education, 27(1), 52.
  • Robins, A., Rountree, J., & Rountree, N. (2003). Learning and teaching programming: A review and discussion. Computer Science Education, 13(2), 137-172.
  • Rogozhkina, I., & Kushnirenko, A. (2011). PiktoMir: teaching programming concepts to preschoolers with a new tutorial environment. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 28, 601-605.
  • Roy, G. G., Kelso, J., & Standing, C. (1998). Towards a visual programming environment for software development. Paper presented at the Software Engineering: Education & Practice, 1998. Proceedings. 1998 International Conference.
  • Saeli, M. (2012). Teaching programming for secondary school: a pedagogical content knowledge based approach. Technische Universiteit Eindhoven.
  • Sáez-López, J.-M., Román-González, M., & Vázquez-Cano, E. (2016). Visual programming languages integrated across the curriculum in elementary school: A two year case study using “Scratch” in five schools. Computers & Education, 97, 129-141.
  • Stephenson, C., Gal-Ezer, J., Haberman, B., & Verno, A. (2005). The new educational imperative: Improving high school computer science education. Final Report of the CSTA Curriculum Improvement Task Force. Wakil, K., & Jawawi, D. N. (2017). Comparison between web engineering methods to develop multi web applications. Journal of Software, 12(10), 783-794. Wakil, K., Muhamad, D., Sardar, K., & Jalal, S. (2017). The impact of teaching ICT for developing education systems. International Journal of Advanced Research (IJAR), 5(7), 873-879. doi:10.21474/IJAR01/4793.
  • Wakil, K., Omer, S., & Omer, B. (2017). Impact of computer games on students GPA. European Journal of Education Studies. 3 (8), 262-272. doi:10.5281/zenodo.827400.
  • Wakil, K., Qaisar, N.., & Mohammed, C. (2017). Enriching classrooms with technology in the basic schools. European Journal of Open Education and E-learning Studies, 2(1), 99-108.
  • Winslow, L. E. (1996). Programming pedagogy—a psychological overview. ACM Sigcse Bulletin, 28(3), 17-22.

Student Ability for Learning Computer Programming Languages in Primary Schools

Year 2019, , 109 - 115, 17.08.2019
https://doi.org/10.31458/iejes.591938

Abstract

Computer
Programming Languages (CPL) is known for its complexity and difficulty. It is
believed to be hard to teach and to learn also many pupils and students in CPL
courses have difficulties to master all
required competencies and skills. At the introductory
level of CPL, that problem is even more
notable. There are different approaches to improve the dropout rate at CPL
courses and to populate CPL. Recently, special visual environments for Visual
Programming Language (VPL) are being used.
Early research results show that VPL can be more efficient than classical
textual programming, students can be more motivated, less bored and not burden
with the syntax of CPL in hand, also Iraq
as a new developing county especially in education and technology not study CPL in primary and high schools. In
this study, we use visual basic for learning CPLs
at 6th grade to 9th-grade primary schools
in Iraq. We teach visual basic in four primary schools in Sulaimani city during
a course and we test the students, the
result of the test shows that the students have
the ability to learn CPL by rating 71%, also the students enjoyed with
learning CPL. Finally, the result of this paper helps us to adding CPL curriculum to primary schools as
well as to high schools.

References

  • Ala-Mutka, K. (2004). Problems in learning and teaching programming–a literature study for developing visualizations in the Codewitz-Minerva project. Codewitz needs analysis, 20.
  • Bargury, I. Z., Muller, O., Haberman, B., Zohar, D., Cohen, A., Levy, D., & Hotoveli, R. (2012). Implementing a new Computer Science Curriculum for middle school in Israel. Paper presented at the Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2012.
  • Bers, M. U., Flannery, L., Kazakoff, E. R., & Sullivan, A. (2014). Computational thinking and tinkering: Exploration of an early childhood robotics curriculum. Computers & Education, 72, 145-157.
  • Clements, D. H., & Gullo, D. F. (1984). Effects of computer programming on young children's cognition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76(6), 1051.
  • Denner, J., Werner, L., & Ortiz, E. (2012). Computer games created by middle school girls: Can they be used to measure understanding of computer science concepts? Computers & Education, 58(1), 240-249. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.08.006
  • Fessakis, G., Gouli, E., & Mavroudi, E. (2013). Problem solving by 5–6 years old kindergarten children in a computer programming environment: A case study. Computers & Education, 63, 87-97. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.11.016
  • Grgurina, N., Barendsen, E., Zwaneveld, B., van Veen, K., & Stoker, I. (2014). Computational thinking skills in dutch secondary education: exploring teacher's perspective. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 9th workshop in primary and secondary computing education.
  • Grout, V., & Houlden, N. (2014a). Taking Computer Science and Programming into Schools: The Glyndŵr/BCS Turing Project. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 141, 680-685. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.05.119
  • Grout, V., & Houlden, N. (2014b). Taking computer science and programming into schools: The Glyndŵr/BCS Turing project. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 141, 680-685. Kalelioğlu, F. (2015). A new way of teaching programming skills to K-12 students: Code. org. Computers in Human Behavior, 52, 200-210.
  • Kalelioğlu, F., & Gülbahar, Y. (2014). The effects of teaching programming via scratch on problem solving skills: a discussion from learners' perspective. Informatics in Education, 13(1).
  • Kaučič, B., & Asič, T. (2011). Improving introductory programming with Scratch? Paper presented at the MIPRO, 2011 Proceedings of the 34th International Convention.
  • Kelleher, C., Pausch, R., & Kiesler, S. (2007). Storytelling alice motivates middle school girls to learn computer programming. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems.
  • Keren, G., & Fridin, M. (2014). Kindergarten Social Assistive Robot (KindSAR) for children’s geometric thinking and metacognitive development in preschool education: A pilot study. Computers in Human Behavior, 35, 400-412. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.03.009
  • Lee, I., Martin, F., & Apone, K. (2014). Integrating computational thinking across the K--8 curriculum. Acm Inroads, 5(4), 64-71.
  • Lin, J. M.-C., Yen, L.-Y., Yang, M.-C., & Chen, C.-F. (2005). Teaching computer programming in elementary schools: A pilot study. Paper presented at the National educational computing conference.
  • Mohammed, G. S., Wakil, K., & Nawroly, S. S. (2018). The Effectiveness of microlearning to improve students’ learning ability. International Journal of Educational Research Review, 3(3), 32-38.
  • Nawzad, L., Rahim, D., & Said, K. W. (2018). The Effectiveness of Technology for Improving the Teaching of Natural Science Subjects. Indonesian Journal of Curriculum and Educational Technology Studies, 6(1), 15-21.
  • Rico, M., Martínez-Muñoz, G., Alaman, X., Camacho, D., & Pulido, E. (2011). A programming experience of high school students in a virtual world platform. International Journal of Engineering Education, 27(1), 52.
  • Robins, A., Rountree, J., & Rountree, N. (2003). Learning and teaching programming: A review and discussion. Computer Science Education, 13(2), 137-172.
  • Rogozhkina, I., & Kushnirenko, A. (2011). PiktoMir: teaching programming concepts to preschoolers with a new tutorial environment. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 28, 601-605.
  • Roy, G. G., Kelso, J., & Standing, C. (1998). Towards a visual programming environment for software development. Paper presented at the Software Engineering: Education & Practice, 1998. Proceedings. 1998 International Conference.
  • Saeli, M. (2012). Teaching programming for secondary school: a pedagogical content knowledge based approach. Technische Universiteit Eindhoven.
  • Sáez-López, J.-M., Román-González, M., & Vázquez-Cano, E. (2016). Visual programming languages integrated across the curriculum in elementary school: A two year case study using “Scratch” in five schools. Computers & Education, 97, 129-141.
  • Stephenson, C., Gal-Ezer, J., Haberman, B., & Verno, A. (2005). The new educational imperative: Improving high school computer science education. Final Report of the CSTA Curriculum Improvement Task Force. Wakil, K., & Jawawi, D. N. (2017). Comparison between web engineering methods to develop multi web applications. Journal of Software, 12(10), 783-794. Wakil, K., Muhamad, D., Sardar, K., & Jalal, S. (2017). The impact of teaching ICT for developing education systems. International Journal of Advanced Research (IJAR), 5(7), 873-879. doi:10.21474/IJAR01/4793.
  • Wakil, K., Omer, S., & Omer, B. (2017). Impact of computer games on students GPA. European Journal of Education Studies. 3 (8), 262-272. doi:10.5281/zenodo.827400.
  • Wakil, K., Qaisar, N.., & Mohammed, C. (2017). Enriching classrooms with technology in the basic schools. European Journal of Open Education and E-learning Studies, 2(1), 99-108.
  • Winslow, L. E. (1996). Programming pedagogy—a psychological overview. ACM Sigcse Bulletin, 28(3), 17-22.
There are 27 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Studies on Education
Journal Section Research Article
Authors

Karzan Wakıl 0000-0003-1838-4906

Shanaz Khdır This is me

Lava Sabır This is me

Lezan Nawzad This is me

Publication Date August 17, 2019
Submission Date February 25, 2019
Published in Issue Year 2019

Cite

APA Wakıl, K., Khdır, S., Sabır, L., Nawzad, L. (2019). Student Ability for Learning Computer Programming Languages in Primary Schools. International E-Journal of Educational Studies, 3(6), 109-115. https://doi.org/10.31458/iejes.591938

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