Purpose of this study is determined effects of different teaching approaches on programming skills. Therefore, the effect of three different types of activities prepared with Scratch on 423 sixth grade students' attitudes towards computer technologies, algorithmic thinking skills and reflective thinking skills on problem solving were investigated.…

As a novice, learning computer programming is challenging. It requires learners to be inquisitive and acquire skills to analyze problems to get to solutions critically. Unfortunately, students drop out of programming courses because students think that programming is difficult to understand. The student's understanding of the problem definition is…

This paper presents an approach to implement learning objects for teaching and learning problem-solving techniques based on computer programming. The demonstrated approach exploits computer-based interactive animations and computer graphics. The main feature of this approach is its simplicity for exploring the concepts and structures of the…

In this paper, MTL, an approach for visualization-based pedagogy, is analyzed and contextualized in both Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) and Dual Coding Theory (DCT). Through MTL, lectures, tutorials, laboratory sessions and individual study in learning and teaching programming are all carried out using two cognitive channels; verbal and non-verbal.…

In an increasingly digital world, the elementary school students of today who learn to program will be positioned to re-imagine and build the future. As educators, it is essential to consider how such an important skill is made accessible for a diverse range of students, including those diagnosed with learning disabilities. In this article, the…

Problem solving techniques are one of the primary topics introduced to the computing and information technology students in tertiary education. In general, those techniques are presented using a collection of traditional tools, such as texts, graphs, illustrations, procedural steps, pseudocodes, algorithms, and flowcharts. In many cases, there is…

This paper investigates foreigners' linguistic and visual representations observed in 17 recent Japanese animated shows (or "anime"), and explores ways to increase students' critical awareness of issues regarding Japanese language and culture. We find that foreign characters in "anime" tend to be linguistically represented with…

The basics of digital literacy begin to form at an early age, and as they grow older, digital literacy must continue to evolve, adapting to the rapidly changing digital world. The first (both in importance and in time) after the family cognitive social institution for most people is the educational system, or rather, the system of preschool…

As science teachers continue preparing for implementation of the "Next Generation Science Standards," one recommendation is to use computer programming as a promising context to efficiently integrate science and engineering. In this article, a interdisciplinary team of educational researchers and computer scientists describe how to use…

We survey the literature about the teaching and learning of recursive programming. After a short history of the advent of recursion in programming languages and its adoption by programmers, we present curricular approaches to recursion, including a review of textbooks and some programming methodology, as well as the functional and imperative…

The effectiveness of a learning depends on four main elements, they are content, desired learning outcome, instructional method and the delivery media. The integration of those four elements can be manifested into a learning module which is called multimedia learning or learning by using multimedia. In learning context by using computer-based…

Simulation and modeling activities, a key point of computational thinking, are currently not being integrated into the science classroom. This paper describes a new visual programming tool entitled the Simulation Creation Toolkit. The Simulation Creation Toolkit is a high level pattern-based phenomenological approach to bringing rapid simulation…

Facing the need to introduce new approaches to teaching the art of programming to undergraduate Computer and Information Technology (CIT) students as part of the transition of the former Purdue College of Technology to the novel concept and status of Purdue Polytechnic, we came up with the idea of offering a pilot 300-level course entitled…

This study demonstrates a game-based learning (GBL) approach to engage students in learning and enhance their programming skills. The paper gives a detailed narrative of how an educational game was mapped with the curriculum of a prescribed programming course in a computing diploma study programme. Two separate student cohorts were invited to…

The first data structure that first-year undergraduate students learn during the programming and algorithms courses is the one-dimensional array. For novice programmers, it might be hard to understand different algorithms on arrays (e.g. searching, mirroring, sorting algorithms), because the algorithms dynamically change the values of elements. In…