From practice to learning: Computer Science the other way round

Stefano Federici

First

;Elisabetta Gola;Claudia Medas;Andrea Zuncheddu

2019-01-01

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Abstract

Computer science (CS), considered in the past as a formal discipline, has changed today due to the introduction of computational thinking in primary and secondary school. This change requires a new style of teaching that is both simplified and enjoyable. New tools for coding have paved the way to a different style of teaching and learning CS. This new way, in our view, can be a model for all of school pedagogy since it allows for construction of knowledge by the students themselves. Learning CS by learning ‘instructions’ works when the self-motivation of the learner is strong. This method is not effective for less motivated students. Drop-rate in CS courses is alarmingly high (Beaubouef and Mason 2005; Computing Research Association , 2011; Nager and Atkinson 2016). Moving from ‘instructions’ to working smartphone apps or video games, as the current pedagogy demands, is not straightforward. A new approach to coding, mainly inspired by MIT's Scratch programming language that directly starts from video games and smartphone apps (Maloney et al., 2010), has transformed the formal CS education delivery mechanism to a discovery- and play-driven approach. Students see and manipulate visual objects (not numerical data), organize their behaviors by assembling drag-and-drop scripts (not awkward syntax-based code), and see every step of their ‘program’ visually updated in the programming environment. This new informal approach, driven by need and self-discovery, can be a model of pedagogy that enables a better learning of all school curriculum.