Using a Physical Computing Project to Prepare Preservice Primary Teachers for Teaching Programing

The cultivation of computational thinking and programing education have gained prominence in K-12 education worldwide. Primary school teachers should be proficient in visual programing and using microcontrollers to teach programing courses. To cope with these trends, a learning activity was develope...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Fu-Hsing Tsai
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2023-10-01
Series:SAGE Open
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440231205409
_version_ 1797643723964678144
author Fu-Hsing Tsai
author_facet Fu-Hsing Tsai
author_sort Fu-Hsing Tsai
collection DOAJ
description The cultivation of computational thinking and programing education have gained prominence in K-12 education worldwide. Primary school teachers should be proficient in visual programing and using microcontrollers to teach programing courses. To cope with these trends, a learning activity was developed and implemented in Taiwan’s primary teacher education curriculum. The activity aimed to help preservice primary teachers learn about Scratch visual programing and micro:bit microcontroller boards by engaging in a physical computing project involving the design of an educational motion sensor game about energy. The results of the preliminary study found that the preservice primary teachers who participated in the activity were able to collaborate and develop motion sensor games suitable for primary school students. They also demonstrated significant improvements in their computational thinking concepts ( t (10) = 3.13, p  < .05) and energy knowledge test scores ( t (10) = 2.74, p  < .05). Furthermore, most participants expressed satisfaction with the activity, implying the activity’s feasibility for teacher education.
first_indexed 2024-03-11T14:18:59Z
format Article
id doaj.art-2f09cd63859b4bc2b40f311ba578eeba
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2158-2440
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-11T14:18:59Z
publishDate 2023-10-01
publisher SAGE Publishing
record_format Article
series SAGE Open
spelling doaj.art-2f09cd63859b4bc2b40f311ba578eeba2023-10-31T19:33:21ZengSAGE PublishingSAGE Open2158-24402023-10-011310.1177/21582440231205409Using a Physical Computing Project to Prepare Preservice Primary Teachers for Teaching ProgramingFu-Hsing Tsai0 National Chiayi UniversityThe cultivation of computational thinking and programing education have gained prominence in K-12 education worldwide. Primary school teachers should be proficient in visual programing and using microcontrollers to teach programing courses. To cope with these trends, a learning activity was developed and implemented in Taiwan’s primary teacher education curriculum. The activity aimed to help preservice primary teachers learn about Scratch visual programing and micro:bit microcontroller boards by engaging in a physical computing project involving the design of an educational motion sensor game about energy. The results of the preliminary study found that the preservice primary teachers who participated in the activity were able to collaborate and develop motion sensor games suitable for primary school students. They also demonstrated significant improvements in their computational thinking concepts ( t (10) = 3.13, p  < .05) and energy knowledge test scores ( t (10) = 2.74, p  < .05). Furthermore, most participants expressed satisfaction with the activity, implying the activity’s feasibility for teacher education.https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440231205409
spellingShingle Fu-Hsing Tsai
Using a Physical Computing Project to Prepare Preservice Primary Teachers for Teaching Programing
SAGE Open
title Using a Physical Computing Project to Prepare Preservice Primary Teachers for Teaching Programing
title_full Using a Physical Computing Project to Prepare Preservice Primary Teachers for Teaching Programing
title_fullStr Using a Physical Computing Project to Prepare Preservice Primary Teachers for Teaching Programing
title_full_unstemmed Using a Physical Computing Project to Prepare Preservice Primary Teachers for Teaching Programing
title_short Using a Physical Computing Project to Prepare Preservice Primary Teachers for Teaching Programing
title_sort using a physical computing project to prepare preservice primary teachers for teaching programing
url https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440231205409
work_keys_str_mv AT fuhsingtsai usingaphysicalcomputingprojecttopreparepreserviceprimaryteachersforteachingprograming