Learning Computational Thinking Through the Use of Flash Action Scripts Preparing Trainee Elementary School Teachers for Teaching Computer Programming

摘要

The teaching of Computer programming is now mandated in UK state run primary and secondary schools but few elementary teachers have any exposure to programming and are generally from backgrounds that have not given them fluency in using such technology. This paper outlines an attempt to develop a training scheme for trainee teachers that will introduce them to computational thinking through the use of the Flash Action Script Development environment. It is believed that learning how to use this tool will provide them with greater motivation to learn how to program as the scripts will be used to develop teaching instruments that they might use in their classroom. The current paper reports progress on the development of a tool that will allow the teaching of Flash Action Scripts and the testing of this approach on groups of trainee and experienced teachers. It reports on an experiment and the relative level of enthusiasm, motivation and attitude of the experienced teachers and the trainee teachers both before and after exposure to the pilot tool. As expected the trainee teachers had a more positive attitude towards the potential of the learning tool but both groups had improved attitude and enthusiasm after the experiment.