One of the things that became immediately clear to me when researching my driving question was that there didn't appear to be me nearly enough research examining the impact of HTML/CSS coding language development on thinking skills. This maybe because teaching coding in the elementary classroom is a unique or new trend, and therefore hasn't been studied the way that more traditional classroom experiences have been, or it maybe that HTML/CSS are such fluid languages that studies are difficult to conduct. I was able to discover several studies looking at the impact of SCRATCH, a computer language created for children. Filiz Kalelioglu and Yasemin Gulbahar conducted a study on "The Effects of Teaching Programming via Scratch on Problem Solving Skills: A Discussion from Learners' Perspective", is the one that is most often cited. This looks at how learning SCRATCH impacted problem solving skills in elementary students. This study is similiar to the one I propose, and according to their research, learning SCRATCH resulted in a "non-significant increase" for these students. However, as SCRATCH is not a "true" computer language, but rather one created for children, I feel that there is a significant difference between this study and the one I propose.
One trend in education recently is the growth of kid-friendly coding activities. which involves a drag-and-drop technique. This differs widely from learning an actual coding language suchs as HTML, CSS, or Java Script. Students walk away from these activities believing that they have been "coding" on the computer, when really they are simply moving a block from one side of the screen to the other. While some logic is involved in this process, selecting the correct block of code to solve the puzzle, it doesn't require the in depth problem solving of the complex language of HTML. In contemplating my driving question, I focused on this area of technology education. If true computer coding requires a deeper level of logic and problem solving, could it have a more significant impact on student development of these skills? This differentiation is critical when examing the state-of-the-art knowledge related to this question. Should efforts be made to move toward teaching students authentic levels of computer coding, rather than a watered-down, kid friendly version? If students are to be fluent in state-of-the-art computer skills, shouldn't they begin to practice them as soon as developmentally possible? This is an area that appears to be particularly underrepresented in current research. I am hoping that my small study will provide insight into this developing area of education.
3 Comments
Nancy
3/15/2017 04:26:55 pm
Hi Jen,
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Nai Saelee
3/16/2017 06:22:25 pm
Hi Jen,
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Dan Parker
4/2/2017 10:43:19 am
Hi Jen,
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AuthorJen has been teaching school for awhile now. She's learned some stuff, but she's got tons more to learn. Archives
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