Learning computer programming can be challenging for primary school students due to its abstract concepts. While teachers seek effective ways to introduce such concepts, the application of learning objects (LOs) can potentially reduce the effort of creating new material from and allows teachers to adapt LOs to students' needs. Although numerous…

Purpose: Demonstrate the importance of programming, discuss the pedagogical philosophy of how programming is taught, identify the barriers to the proper implementation of programming education in United Arab Emirates (UAE) primary schools, and find solutions to overcome these barriers. Methodology: The study adopted a qualitative approach.…

The integration of visual programming in early formal education has been found to promote computational thinking of students. Teachers' intuitive perspectives about optimal learning processes -- "folk psychology" -- impact their perspectives about teaching "folk pedagogy" and play a significant role in integrating educational…

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the introduction of programming in teacher education and professional development, highlighting its importance for the development of so-called computational thinking. This study explored primary education teachers' participation in programming practices. By focusing on their views of creating…

The promotion and implementation of programming education in primary and secondary schools in the intelligent era are associated with high-quality information technology (IT) teachers who possess programming literacy. IT teachers' programming literacy requires a scientific and reasonable index system for quantitative evaluation. On the basis of…

In this qualitative case study, we examined in-service elementary school teachers' learning of coding and robotics in a blended professional learning course developed and delivered through the collaboration between university faculty and a school district. We focused on activity theory to understand and reveal the mediations, conflicts, and…

There has been a global consensus to develop computational thinking (CT) in primary education, but the biggest obstacle to promoting CT is teachers' lack of sufficient CT. This study explored the effects of micro: bit educational robotics (MER) programming activities on primary teachers' CT and programming attitudes (PA) while considering the…

As block-based visual programming platform such as Scratch become more accessible and supportive to children's programming learning, the demand on understanding a trajectory of children's computational thinking development through programming from their early ages increases rapidly in recent years. To explore the developmental process of…

Background: Integrating programming in K-12 curriculum has become a global consensus. Teachers are central figures in programming instruction. But the majority of current research focuses on teachers' external teaching behaviours and less on teachers' attitudes towards programming. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to validate the K-12…

Recent US science standards conceptualize science as a set of shared multidisciplinary ideas and practices in common with engineering and computer science (CS). At the core, this portrayal requires an understanding of CS as a viable career path and set of discrete knowledge and skills, including those related to computer programming. However,…

This study critically reviews sixteen empirical studies that investigate the various difficulties that primary school students encounter while learning programming through educational games. Specifically, the challenges that students face in understanding basic programming concepts and the game elements that contribute to these difficulties, as…

This study focuses on students' self-assessment during their learning process related to computer programming concepts, taking into account challenges and obstacles both teachers and students face, with the aim to contribute to the development of guiding principles and practices and enhance the teaching process of computer programming in primary…

This review article focuses on the teaching of computer programming in primary school mathematics, as reported by 37 empirical studies. Our findings show that a variety of research methods are used, which often combine qualitative and quantitative approaches. Furthermore, we found the focus of attention to vary from emphasis on the teacher and the…

Research indicates that understanding levels of abstraction (LOA) and being able to move between the levels is essential to programming success. For K-5 contexts LOA levels have been named: problem, design, code and running the code. In a qualitative exploratory study, five K-5 teachers were interviewed on their uses of LOA, particularly the…

Background & Context: Many efforts have been dedicated to building computer science (CS) teacher capacity through offering professional development (PD) programs. Previous reviews indicated the need to offer more continual support for teachers. Recent research has shifted its focus to scaling up PD and sustaining teaching capacity by…