In the master's thesis, we will present the performance of learning activities for teaching initial programming with Ozobot robots in the second educational cycle of elementary school. In the theoretical part, we will present in more detail the concept of computational thinking which is of essential significance in the computer science lessons, as well as the key competence that students should acquire in the 21st century. We will briefly present learning theories and modern learning approaches that are important for the performance of the planned learning activities. We will focus on two theories of learning, constructivism and constructionism, which are essential for our approach to learning. In modern learning approaches, we will present problem learning, pair programming, and computerless coding in more detail. Because the lessons are based on working with Ozobot robots, we will also present the Ozobot robot, physical computing, robot teaching, and visual programming language in more detail.
The purpose of our research was to ascertain to what extent it is possible to improve the performance of students in learning programming and computational thinking in the 4th grade of elementary school by a set of planned lessons for teaching initial programming with Ozobot robots. Learning activities were carried out in a set of four lessons. The initial activities which were dedicated to getting acquainted with and learning different computer concepts were based on a computerless coding approach. This was followed by physical computing activities with the use of the Ozobot robot. In the first set of activities, students programmed using color codes. In the second set, they used the Ozoblockly application for programming. In the empirical research, we tested the initial and final understanding of computer concepts important for the programming of the Ozobot robot by an educational test. Through an unstructured interview, we gained insight into how the students understand the word robot. We also gained insight into the students’ final knowledge by the analysis of the students' products that were programmed during the lessons.
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