PRIMM: Exploring pedagogical approaches for teaching text-based programming in school

ABSTRACT

Many teachers are able to recognise that students can find programming difficult -- it is not as easy for teachers to know how to help struggling students to gain confidence and a secure understanding of programming concepts. This is particularly acute where the curriculum requires the teaching of text-based programming from age 11. In this paper we describe an approach to teaching programming we call PRIMM -- Predict-Run-Investigate-Modify-Make. This builds on three areas of research: the Use-Modify-Create methodology, levels of abstraction used in programming, and tracing and code comprehension research. The PRIMM approach has been trialled with teachers new to programming and is now being implemented in a pilot study in secondary schools.

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Index Terms

• Social and professional topics

  • Professional topics

    • Computing education

      • K-12 education