The ability to learn is at the highest level in the early stages of life. At that time, we are most suited to learning new things. That's why we are striving for early teaching in different subject areas, including in computer science. The main topic of the master's thesis is the early teaching computer science by object manipulation in 2D.
The theoretical part of the master's thesis will focus on learning theories which describe modern teaching of computer science. We will highlight Piaget’s theory, which presupposes active participation in the process of teaching. We will focus on neo-Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. We will describe the importance of this theory in the early phase of teaching computer science. Then we will present computational thinking and concepts of computational thinking. We will also present the importance of the early teaching of computer science, which plays an important role in all subject areas, since it contributes to the development of 21st century knowledge and skills.
In the empirical part we will use activities on checkered paper that arose in the context of the thesis. Checkered paper represents the grid by which pupils move objects from start to finish. The pupils manage objects with commands. Based on the feedback obtained as part of the previous work, we have made didactic changes that will allow even greater efficiency of activities. Teachers can use activities at Computer Science course, because in this area there is a lack of appropriate materials through which pupils acquire the set of learning outcomes. Learning outcomes that we have highlighted within the master's thesis: Pupil can follow the sequence of commands, Pupil can complete the sequence of commands and Pupil can find an error in the sequence of commands and fix it.
We will use the renewed tasks with students of 2nd three-year cycle of primary school. In carrying out the activities we will evaluate the response of the students. We want to determine how students start solving prepared activities and which approach brings the successful results. We also want to determine how tasks help in the development of the computational thinking: do students acquire the exact implementation of commands, improve abstraction and orientation through tasks and can they use new knowledge in new problem situations.
During the research we used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.
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