Identification of pupils’ preferences of patterners and dramatists in secondary school computer science education

Abstract

With the increasing integration of computer science into school curricula, a growing number of pupils are coming into contact with this subject. To get as many pupils as possible interested in computer science, the teaching strategies and methods must meet the heterogeneous prerequisites of the pupils. The purpose of this paper is to find out how to identify two different student behavioral preferences mentioned in the computer science education literature. Considering these preferences, the focus was set on the preferences for socially enriched learning on the one hand and task-oriented learning on the other hand. Even though related research has been found on the preferences of preschoolers and adults, research is missing in the field of computer science education at the secondary school level. Thus, this study focuses on the learning preferences of pupils in secondary school education regarding the two behavioral preferences. As a result, an instrument was developed and piloted that, validated by qualitative methods, measures these different preferences. Preliminary exploratory results from analyses with school classes show that preference clusters can be found in secondary education. Further research aims to use these findings to improve computer science education.