Toolbox for adopting computational thinking through learning flash
1. The need for teachers of Elementary School children to learn to program or ratherto understand the Computational Thinking behind programming has beenaccelerated in many countries by the mandated teaching of programming in theElementary School context. Many steps have been taken in order to create...
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| Format: | thesis |
| Language: | eng |
| Published: |
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ir.upsi.edu.my/detailsg.php?det=6265 |
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| Summary: | 1. The need for teachers of Elementary School children to learn to program or ratherto understand the Computational Thinking behind programming has beenaccelerated in many countries by the mandated teaching of programming in theElementary School context. Many steps have been taken in order to createawareness of this issue, such as the Computing At Schools initiative (CAS) whichis established in the UK. CAS aims to support teaching in computing andconnected fields in UK schools. Moreover, in the USA the Computer ScienceTeachers Association (CSTA) was established to meet the purpose of informingand advising about the current development of computational thinking and toinvestigate and disseminate teaching and learning resources related tocomputational thinking. In Singapore research has been conducted by thegovernment agency Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA)whereby the major goal is to meet the needs in the ICT sector and ultimately tofocus and inspire learners about programming.The research for this thesis involves the development of a training scheme for pre-serviceteachers that will introduce them to computational thinking through the use of the FlashAction Script Development environment. Flash Action Scripts amongst several othertools are used as a tool for creating interactive content and because Flash is one of thepremiere tools used to create content for the internet; a tool programmed with Flashlooks practically the same in every browser and on every operating system. Flash Actionscripts use traditional coding skills but permit the user to see how each piece of codeaffects the running or execution of the program, allowing the user to have an instantvisual understanding of what the code is doing. It is also widely available within universitycampuses.A major problem in promoting the teaching of programming and computational thinkingto Elementary School teachers is that the majority of such teachers have no concept ofhow to program and naturally are not motivated to learn programming. Experiencedteachers involved in the current study felt that programming was too complicated andthus it was hard to gain fluency in programming. Student teachers who had no previousexperience in programming were, however, easier to get engaged in learningprogramming principles. Eighty percent of this group found Action Scripting a useful toolto understand basic programming and scripting. The need to teach programming willmotivate most but to learn through a tool that can be seen to have intrinsic value in theirrole as teachers has a greater potential of success. This thesis defines the design andimplementation of a tool to use the learning of Flash Action Scripting as a motivationalmechanism for pre-service teachers. The intrinsic value to them is intended to beutilisation of the learned Action Scripting skills to produce their own teaching material.Initial results indicate an enhanced engagement and motivation to learn to program andimproved confidence in doing so. As projected the pre-service teachers had a morepositive attitude towards the potential of the learning tool but both they and the inserviceteachers had improved attitudes and enthusiasm after the experiment. Theresults show that both pre-service and in-service teachers can be trained to be designersand producers of digital courseware in the previous absence of computational thinkingskills and definitely they can acquire skills in computer programming such as Flash ActionScripts. |
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