Streamlined approach to 2nd/3rd graders learning basic programming concepts

There is a growing need to teach schoolchildren programming at an increasingly younger age. The goal of this study is to determine if it is possible to teach schoolchildren basic programming concepts in a streamlined manner. In order to present the new knowledge in a way schoolchildren could understand easily, analogies between basic programming concepts and traffic were used. A simple video game was developed with this in mind and an effort was made to avoid design pitfalls commonly found in edutainment titles. The study involved 112 schoolchildren ages 7 to 9. Test group and control group were given a pre-test, a re-test and a post-test. The re-test and the post-test respectively showed 16% and 7% score difference in favor of the test group. Focusing on questions featuring content analogous to basic programming concepts showed 36% and 20% difference in scores.

Automated summary

The study suggests that using analogies to daily life, such as traffic, in teaching basic programming concepts to schoolchildren can enhance their learning and understanding. Developing a simple video game can also help students grasp programming concepts better. The results of the study show that the test group performed better in terms of scores, especially in questions featuring basic programming concepts.