In the master's thesis we deal with learning programming concepts in accordance with the
Creative computing curriculum and try to determine whether students with more freedom in
the creative field and the possibility of integration and cooperation, develop and upgrade
computational thinking.
In the theoretical part of the master's thesis, we first present the concept of computational
thinking and some of its definitions, which have developed in different time periods. As part
of the research, we use the three-dimensional model of computational thinking which was
developed by Karen Brennan and Mitch Resnick (2012). Dimensions of concepts, perspectives
and practices of computational thinking are included in the model. We define each of these
dimensions, focusing mostly on the computational concepts which are crucial in assessing
students' progress in our research. We briefly present the theories on which modern learning
approaches of early programming are based (constructionism, constructivism), we show the
connection between constructionism and creative learning and explain the stages of a child's
cognitive development according to neopiagetian theory from the programming point of view.
Before presenting Creative Computing, we demonstrate the development of computer science
curricula around the world, describe the Slovenian computer science curriculum and the ACM
K-12 computer science curriculum, which is used by many countries. Creative computing
curriculum is defined by chapters. We also present a website on which the curriculum and other
teaching materials are accessible. We describe the Scratch software environment in which the
activities presented in the Creative Computing curriculum are implemented and we also write
down five strategies for successful teaching of programming in Scratch proposed by Karen
Brennan based on the analysis of data from learning observations, personal interviews and
content published on ScratchEd.
Creative computing curriculum offers a variety of activities, most often projects that escalate
in complexity and try to develop creativity and computational thinking in the student. Through
the activities, students encounter the basic concepts (sequences, events, loops, parallelism,
conditionals, operators and data), practices (experimenting and iterative, testing and
debugging, reusing and remixing, abstracting and modularizing) and perspectives of
computational thinking that manifest themselves in the expression, connection, and
questioning within the community.
In the empirical part, we describe a teaching model based on the Creative Computing
curriculum. Fourth, fifth and sixth grade students of the selected primary school were included
in the research. Before the lessons, students answered a short survey questionnaire and took a
pretest. After completing the lessons, students independently created a project, A Story in
Scratch. After submitting the project, they had to take a posttest. In the research, we focused
on the progress in students' knowledge after the introduction of a new teaching method
proposed by Creative Computing curriculum. The projects were quantitatively evaluated with
the freely accessible web application Dr. Scratch. With the help of the observation diary, we
monitored which ways of seeking help students most often use in solving problems.
After analysing the test results and qualitative and quantitative evaluation of projects, we have
found that through learning activities adapted to the Creative Computing curriculum, students
have deepened their knowledge in the field of computer science and have learnt to cooperate
with one another in order to solve the problems they are faced with.
|
