A Contextualized Spiral Approach for Teaching Programming in IT Vocational Secondary Education

Authors

  • Luis Gustavo de Jesus Araujo Universidade de Feira de Santana
  • Roberto Almeida Bittencourt
  • Davi Mosés Santos

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14210/jcthink.v2.n1.p81

Keywords:

Contextualized learning, Computational thinking, Programming, Spiral learning

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Brazilian vocational high school education in Computing faces problems such as course failure and dropout, plus dropout from the programs, factors that directly contribute to the deficit of such professionals. OBJECTIVE:  This paper reports an experience of a contextualized and spiral approach carried out with students of the technical program in Informatics. METHOD: The approach aims to facilitate learning and motivate students through the tools JES and PPlay, and the Python language. RESULTS: Learned lessons suggest the adequacy of Python as first language, and of contextualized activities, context reuse and challenges as factors contributing to motivation and learning. CONCLUSION: The use of contexts, languages and environments in sequential and spiral blocks fosters a more active posture of students regarding learning activities.

Downloads

Published

2018-11-21

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 1 (2018)

Section

Invited Papers

License

Authors Who publish in this magazine agree to the following conditions:

  1. Authors keep their copyrights and Grant the journal the publication rights, with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, allowing the work sharing with its author’s recognition and publication in this journal.
  2. Authors have the authorization to take on additional contracts separately, for non-exclusive distribution of the work published in this journal (ex.: publish in an institutional repository or as a book chapter), with authorship recognition and first publication in this journal.
  3. Authors have permission and are encouraged  to publish and distribute their works online (in institutional repositories or in their own web page) in any moment after the editorial process, since it may generate productive altering, as well as increasing the impact and quotation of the published work (See The Free Access Effect).