THINKING LIKE A COMPUTER: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF INTRODUCTORY PROGRAMMERS' LEARNING PROCESSES IN SCRATCH
| Author(s) | Kong, Minji | |
| Date Accessioned | 2020-09-14T15:44:35Z | |
| Date Available | 2020-09-14T15:44:35Z | |
| Publication Date | 2020-05 | |
| Abstract | As block-based programming environments are increasingly used to introduce students to computational thinking (CT), researchers have developed various techniques and tools for assessing students' CT skills using these visual programming languages. Most approaches focus on analyzing students' nal code products; however, insights into how to improve teaching also can be gained from observing students' programming processes as they code, beyond what is learned from their products. Unfortunately, observing each individual student's process rsthand and interviewing students is time-intensive and non-scalable. This thesis describes a logging and sequential pattern analysis methodology that enables scalable data collection and analysis of students' programming processes in the Scratch visual programming environment. As students code, we record their interactions with the constructs and the environment itself. Using this capability, we explore the kinds of programming behaviors that can be learned from the mined patterns of logs recorded as students performed the same coding task in two college courses introducing programming (37 Education and Human Development majors taking an Ed Tech course and 44 non-CS majors taking a general introductory CS course). Our ndings indicate that the logs and patterns can describe one's demonstration of uncertainty with a certain construct, attempted use of blocks that are not required in an assigned programming task, and heavy focus on speech-based constructs that do not involve CT skills, all of which can serve as starting points of discussion concerning how CT teaching methodologies could be improved. | en_US |
| Advisor | Lori Pollock, Ph.D. | |
| Program | Computer Science | |
| URL | https://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/27515 | |
| Publisher | University of Delaware | en_US |
| Keywords | computer science, scratch | en_US |
| Title | THINKING LIKE A COMPUTER: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF INTRODUCTORY PROGRAMMERS' LEARNING PROCESSES IN SCRATCH | en_US |
| Type | Thesis | en_US |