Programming Practice Using Scratch for Each Grade of Elementary School
A method of teaching programming at elementary school is required. Scratch can easily practice the programming. This paper presents teaching materials by grade level using Scratch. For first graders, it is a teaching material for exercises of mouse operation. For second graders, it is a teaching material for exercises of keyboard operation. Third graders perform typing operations in Roman or English. Fourth graders create a program that tackles sequential processing. Fifth graders create a program that involves iterative processing. Sixth graders create a program that involves conditional branches and iterations. Each is combined with many subjects of art, music, national language and arithmetic. These materials were used in classroom practice with many teaching assistants. It is designed to be performed in 45 minutes. This paper also presents the results of classroom practice using these materials.
Developing Computational Thinking in the Classroom: A Framework
Computational thinking sits at the heart of the new statutory programme of study for Computing: “A high quality computing education equips pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world” (Department for Education, 2013, p. 188). This document aims to support teachers to teach computational thinking. It describes a framework that helps explain what computational thinking is, describes pedagogic approaches for teaching it and gives ways to assess it. Pupil progression with the previous ICT curriculum was often demonstrated through ‘how’ (for example, a software usage skill) or ‘what’ the pupil produced (for example, a poster). This was partly due to the needs of the business world for office skills. Such use of precious curriculum time however has several weaknesses. Firstly, the country’s economy depends on technological innovation not just on use of technology. Secondly, the pace of technology and organisational change is fast in that the ICT skills learnt are out of date before a pupil leaves school. Thirdly, technology invades all aspects of our life and the typically taught office practice is only a small part of technology use today.
Computational Thinking: The Developing Definition
Since Jeanette Wing’s use of the term computational thinking in 2006, various discussions have arisen seeking a robust definition of the phrase. With little consensus having been found in the intervening years, there are even suggestions that a definition is not important. Perhaps focus should be on how computational thinking is taught and how its acquisition might be observed. However, in order to facilitate consistent curriculum design and appropriate assessment, it is argued that a definition should still be sought In order to contribute to the discussions surrounding a definition of computational thinking, this review of literature spans the years since 2006. The most frequently occurring terms, descriptions, and meanings are identified. Consideration is given to the motivation for inclusion or exclusion of a term by each individual author. Where possible, if a description has been given, an associated term is supplied. Criteria are developed for the objectives of a computational thinking definition, in accordance with the needs identified in the literature. Using the criteria as a guide and the collected terms as the vocabulary, a definition of computational thinking is proposed which encompasses the thought processes of abstraction, decomposition, algorithmic design, evaluation, and generalization.