Which perceptions do primary school children have about programming?

Katharina Geldreich, Alexandra Simon, Elena Starke

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

It is generally accepted that children have their own understanding of how the world works. Teachers need to take their ideas and knowledge into account in the learning process. While there exists a lot of research on children's perceptions of science concepts, little is known about their perceptions of programming. Since the topic is now becoming more and more relevant in the primary school context, our study aims to provide insights into children's ideas and knowledge about programming. For this purpose, we conducted and filmed seven group discussions with a total of 61 third-and fourth-grade students (age 8-11). The videos were transcribed and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The findings show that the students associate actions as well as programmable devices with the term programming. Furthermore, we have found out that boys and girls have very similar ideas about it.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 14th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education, WiPSCE 2019
EditorsQuintin Cutts, Torsten Brinda
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)9781450377041
DOIs
StatePublished - 23 Oct 2019
Event14th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education, WiPSCE 2019 - Glasgow, United Kingdom
Duration: 23 Oct 201925 Oct 2019

Publication series

NameACM International Conference Proceeding Series

Conference

Conference14th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education, WiPSCE 2019
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityGlasgow
Period23/10/1925/10/19

Keywords

  • Computer science education
  • Preconceptions
  • Primary school
  • Prior knowledge
  • Programming

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