Formative evaluation of a didactic software for acquiring problem solving abilities using Prolog

摘要

Informatics has permeated the educational environments at all levels. In Italian primary schools Informatics teachers present the computer and how it works rather than the programming languages. At present, there is a deep debate about the use of programming languages and, in particular, logic programming in the primary school. On the basis of these premises, the paper presents a didactic software, named KidsPro, addressed to pupils attending fifth-grade of primary school. It aims at improving the user problem solving abilities using Prolog. In order to build an effective and efficient software the User-Centred Design approach was used and the paper presents the results of the formative evaluation performed. The results of this pilot study will be used in the further implementation of the software.