This study explores the application of the Project-Based Learning with Gamification Model (PBLGM) through Visual Programming Language (VPL) to enhance digital competencies and problem-solving skills in learners. The PBLGM model integrates project-based learning and gamification techniques using Kodu Game Lab, aiming to develop essential…

Contemporary education calls for innovative strategies to move away from traditional teacher-centered methods to methods that engage students and enhance learning outcomes. This shift toward student-centered learning is crucial for achieving educational goals and making the next generation more adaptable to the modern era. This paper examines the…

Background and Context: We explore the potential for understanding the processes involved in students' programming based on studying their behaviour and dialogue with each other and "conversations" with their programs. Objective: Our aim is to explore how a perspective of inquiry can be used as a point of departure for insights into how…

This paper reports on CodeOrama, a visualization tool that displays the entire source code in a two-dimensional representation created to support the representation of a complex code in block-based programming environments, like Scratch, by using a two-dimension table. CodeOrama can be used by the students for the development of their programs as…

Computer programming is regarded as an important skill for the future. However, many K-12 students face challenges and difficulties in learning traditional text-based programming. Block-based visual programming (BVP) can reduce the difficulty of learning programming and is seen as a potential programming education tool. Nevertheless, the effects…

In this case study, we present our findings regarding a massive open online Scratch programming course. The course, which followed a project-based learning approach, was delivered from July 4 to 30, 2022 to 186 students in Brazil. The students were challenged to develop individual coding projects. Our research goal was to investigate teaching and…

The instrumental approach is a useful theoretical lens for understanding students' learning processes with a main focus on the transformation of an artefact (a human design for a goal-directed activity) into a meaningful instrument (i.e. an artefact and schemes developed by the student). In this paper, we articulate the instrumental approach for…

Data science surrounds us in contexts as diverse as climate change, air pollution, route-finding, genomics, market manipulation, and movie recommendations. To open the "data-science-black-box" for lower secondary school students, we developed a data science teaching unit focusing on the analysis of environmental data, which we embedded…

With the development of information and communication technologies, access to information is becoming easier every day. Consequently, individuals' abilities to interpret information that especially exists in the learning processes, to produce new knowledge and to use the information produced have gained more importance day by day. The aim of this…

This research is motivated by the low ability to understand mathematical concepts possessed by prospective elementary school teacher students. This study aims to see the achievement and improvement of students' mathematical understanding abilities that use Microsoft Excel-based VBA teaching materials with those using conventional learning. This…

The aim of this study was to design, implement and evaluate the programming process for gifted students and offer suggestions to teachers and researchers. For this purpose, 5 gifted students were provided programming activities for ten weeks. Scratch was used in the programming training process. The qualitative data was collected by observation,…

Since programming processes involve different thinking skills and different fields of knowledge, it is especially important for children to acquire 21st-century skills. Even though the programming education activities are being intensively applied, it can be said that there is a gap in quantitative researches supporting the effort to reveal the…

This paper elaborates on the notion of object-oriented collaborative learning by building on empirical material from two case studies in higher education. Prior empirical findings show how knowledge objects are evolving entities, shaped by the interactions between participants, and how students learn from engaging in knowledge practice that…

This paper presents the "Multi-Role Project" method (MRP), a broadly applicable project-based learning method, and describes its implementation and evaluation in the context of a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) course. The MRP method is designed around a meta-principle that considers the project learning activity…

This report explores the first iteration of a teacher professional development courselet grounded in constructionist theory and activities. This online teacher professional development (oTPD) courselet provided opportunities for teachers to engage in just-in-time, ongoing TPD within a social networking site for educators. The topic of the oTPD was…