Hyungshin Choi
hschoi@cnue.ac.kr
Assistant Professor
Chuncheon National University of Education
Chuncheon, Korea
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a case of computer programming course with a new approach for Korean
pre-service teachers. Computer programming is generally considered to be hard to master and
unproductive due to having to deal with syntactical errors. As an alternative approach, Scratch
was incorporated into pre-service teachers’ programming course. Scratch○ R is an educational
programming language developed by the MIT Media Lab to help beginners approach
programming by drag-and-drop coding blocks and remixing various media such as images,
sounds, texts or narrations. This study aims to discover how Scratch changes Korean pre-
service teachers’ perspectives toward computer programming and also how productive they can
be in terms of creating digital content for their own teaching. Data for analysis include surveys
and reflections from 96 pre-service teachers who took the programming course in the semester
of spring at a national university of education in Korea. In addition, the digital learning content
created by each group of two was collected and analyzed. The research results present pre-
service teachers’ reflections and conceptions of computer programming and their intentions to
use it for their own teaching in near future. From the collected artifacts the types of digital
content and the expected effects of teaching content are examined. The paper discusses
implications of research findings for teacher education programs and pre-service teachers’
adaptive expertise for 21st century learning environments.
INTRODUCTION
Computer programming can facilitate developing of higher-order thinking skills such as logical
thinking, creative thinking, problem solving, and systematic thinking (Fesakis & Serafeim, 2009). Wing
argues that computational thinking is a fundamental skill for everyone and this skill should be added as
4th R followed by reading, writing and arithmetic. Computational thinking involves solving problems,
using heuristic reasoning, and using abstraction and decomposition. The process of computer
programming supports students to develop computational thinking skills (Wing, 2006). In addition,
recently computer programming is considered to as digital literacy because it enables users to become
dynamic digital content producers. Especially for future teachers, computer programming familiarization
is not only for educational use but also in order to be able to create interactive digital learning content.
Despite the benefits and importance of computer programming, it is considered to be difficult to
master and to understand the core concepts. It is because novice programmers have to deal with
syntactical errors that they encounter as they type the commands within complex logical structures. The
fail or drop-out rates in introductory computer programming courses are estimated to 15~30% (Fesakis &
Serafeim, 2009).
Among various approaches to reduce the difficulties of beginner programmers educational
programming languages have been proposed. In this paper, I focus on pre-service teachers’ perceptions
and reflections on computer programming using Scratch educational programming language. In the rest
of the paper first the Scratch environment is introduced briefly, then the research methods are described,
next the results and the discussion of the main findings and future directions are discussed.
Scratch Environment
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This paper reports the current study with the particular interest in the following research questions:
How Scratch programming experiences change Korean pre-service teachers’ perspectives
toward computer programming both in technological and pedagogical aspects.
How productive they can be in terms of creating digital content for their own teaching.
Table 1. Age, gender, prior programming experience of the participants (n= 96)
Category N ( %)
Male 23 (24%)
Gender
Female 73 (76%)
20~22 54 (56.2%)
Age
23-26 24 (25%)
27~30 18 (19.6%)
No 78 (81.3%)
Prior Programming
Yes 13 (13.5%)
Experience
No response 5 (5.2%)
Data Analysis
SPSS 12.0 was used to provide descriptive statistics for the survey items. For analyzing reflection
papers NVivo 9.2 was incorporated to examine recurring themes.
RESULTS
Technological Aspect
Perceptions on Technological Aspect
As shown in Table 3, participants’ perceptions for the Scratch interface and the technological effects
of Scratch are overall positive (M=3.99, M=4.00). Pre-service teachers perceived that Scratch is user
friendly (M=4.25) and uses understandable language (M=4.11). In addition, they reported that Scratch
made them to think computer programming is not as hard as they thought (M=4.26).
Table 3. Mean and standard deviation for the technological effects of Scratch (n=96)
No. Opinions about Scratch Mean SD
1 Scratch is user friendly. 4.25 .71
2 User interface uses a simple and understandable language. 4.11 .71
3 Scratch has aesthetic design. 3.80 .90
4 Scratch features are satisfying. 3.79 .79
Average 3.99 .51
No. Perceptions about the Technological Mean SD
effects of Scratch programming
1 Scratch made me to think that computer programming is not as
4.26 .68
hard as I thought.
2 Scratch made me feel more confident in integrating various
4.03 .76
digital media. (e.g., images, sounds, texts, etc.)
3 Scratch made me feel that I can express more creatively with
4.11 .68
digital media.
4 Scratch made me feel more comfortable with sharing and creating 3.70 .94
digital content with peers.
5 Scratch made me feel more comfortable in selecting and utilizing
3.90 .83
useful digital media.
Average 4.00 .54
Pedagogical Aspect
Perceptions on Pedagogical Aspect
As shown in Table 5, pre-service teachers’ perceptions about the pedagogical effects of Scratch
programming is overall positive (M=4.00). Among the six items, participants perceived that through
Scratch programming their ability to create digital learning content has improved (M=4.18). In addition,
Scratch made pre-service teachers think more positive toward using ICT in education (M=4.23) whereas
they were not as confident in teaching fundamental programming concepts using Scratch (M=3.55).
Table 5. Mean and standard deviation for the pedagogical effects of Scratch (n=96)
No. Perceptions about the pedagogical effects of Mean SD
Scratch programming
1 Through Scratch programming, my ability to create digital learning
4.18 .63
content has improved.
2 Through Scratch programming, my ability to create digital learning
4.23 .64
content that can increase students’ motivation has improved.
3 Through Scratch programming, my ability to create digital learning
4.11 .63
content that can increase teaching effects has improved.
4 Scratch made me think positive toward using ICT in education. 4.23 .76
5 When teaching content is not proper, I would rather create the content
3.85 .91
myself using Scratch.
6 I think I could teach elementary students fundamental programming
3.55 .83
concepts using Scratch.
Average 4.00 .50
Reflections on Pedagogical Aspect
The analysis of the reflections on pedagogical aspects revealed three different types of theme code.
First, the reflections of the participants showed that the effects of Scratch programming in regards to
innovation. The pre-service teachers realized that Scratch can help them to create more interactive and
context based digital learning content that reflects teachers’ intentions and philosophy. Second, the
reflections also revealed that pre-service teachers believe that Scratch programming can help them to
develop thinking skills such as logical thinking, creative thinking, critical thinking, and systems thinking.
Third, the reflections represented that they saw the value and usefulness of the teaching content created
by Scratch programming and showed their intentions for future use (See Table 6).
Artifacts
Summary of artifacts
In total, 49 artifacts were collected and analyzed in terms of the target grade, subject, the type of
content, and the expected learning effects. Pre-service teachers selected the science subject (37%) the
most followed by Math(19%), Language(18%), and Social Science(16%). In addition, 62% of the Pre-
service teachers selected 5th or 6th grade content followed by 4th(15%) and 3rd(14%) (See Figure 1).
Practical Music Ethics 1st
2nd
Arts 4% 2% 4%
6%
4%
6th
21%
3rd
Science
Languag 14%
37%
e
18%
4th
Social 14%
Science
5th
16% Math 41%
19%
As shown in Figure 2, six different types of artifacts were manifested in 49 artifacts. The most
popular type was a quiz (22, 45%) followed by presentations(9,18%), simulations(9, 18%), and games(6,
12%), etc. Some artifacts combined more than one type but each artifact was categorized by the major
approach that was taken. The expected learning effects include evoking motivation, formative evaluations,
summarization, group collaboration, process presentation, etc.
25
20 22
(45%)
15
10
9 9 6 2 1
5
(18%) (18%) (12%) (4%) (2%)
0
REFERENCES
Fesakis, G. & Serafeim, K. (2009). Influence of the familiarization with “Scratch” on future teachers’
opnions and attitudes about programming and ICT in education.ACM Inroads, 41(3), 258-262.
Hammerness, K., Darling-Hammond, L., & Bransford. (2005). How teachers learn and develop. In L.
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learning environment: Three cases of teacher education in Korea. Australasian Journal of
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MIT Media Lab. (2012). Scratch. Retrieved July 4, 2012 from http://scratch.mit.edu.
Rush, N., Resnick, M., & Maloney, J. (2012). Learning with Scratch 21st century learning skills.
Retreived July 2, 2012 from http://llk.media.mit.edu/projects/scratch/papers/Scratch-
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Wing, J. M. (2006). Computational thinking. Communications of the ACM, 49(3), 33-35.