Learning programming by creating games through the use of structured activities in secondary education in Greece

The effective teaching of the concept of programming, where critical thinking is an important factor, is not so easy in secondary education. New teaching approaches, including, game-based learning, may provide a solution due to their inclusion of more fun and diverse activities but they still lack t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Education and information technologies Vol. 26; no. 1; pp. 859 - 898
Main Authors: Seralidou, Eleni, Douligeris, Christos
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: New York Springer US 01.01.2021
Springer
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Activity programs in education
Computer Appl. in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Computer programming
Computer Science
Computer Science Education
Computers and Education
Design
Education
Education, Secondary
Educational Games
Educational Technology
Equipment and supplies
Foreign Countries
Game Based Learning
Games
Information Systems Applications (incl.Internet)
Instructional Effectiveness
Instructional Materials
Methods
Philosophy
Programming
Programming Languages
Secondary education
Secondary School Students
Skill Development
Students
Teaching
Teaching Methods
User Interfaces and Human Computer Interaction
Greece
Activities
Programming
Scratch
Secondary education
Games
ISSN:1360-2357, 1573-7608
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The effective teaching of the concept of programming, where critical thinking is an important factor, is not so easy in secondary education. New teaching approaches, including, game-based learning, may provide a solution due to their inclusion of more fun and diverse activities but they still lack the active participation of the students in the creation of the material. In this context, we develop new teaching and learning materials to teach programming principles, like conditionals, loops and variables, to secondary education students based mainly on the constructivistic philosophy. The aim is to help students learn the basics of programming though creating games using a block-type programming environment and not only through the use and the playing of games. This approach combines the use of game design and creation with learning and results to the developing of basic programming skills. In order to evaluate the produced material quantitative and qualitative methods, such as questionnaires, classroom observations and discussions have been used. The results depict an improvement of the students’ knowledge and skills in programming through this game creation process.
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ISSN:1360-2357
1573-7608
DOI:10.1007/s10639-020-10255-8