Is Block-Based Programming an Effective Teaching Tool?

Abstract

Block-based Programming (BBP) is used as a teaching tool and has gained popularity with young people who start to learn computer programming. BBP hides the programming complexity and allows the user to write programs via a simple, visual interface. In this study, MCAST students’ opinions about BBP are compared to more traditional programming methods. This includes whether they think introducing programming through BBP at Level 2 is the right approach. This research is important to MCAST’s computing curricula to remain relevant to the students’ needs. The research participants are students who joined MCAST form Level 2 and have now completed Level 3 or a higher qualification. Twenty independent variables related to BBP have been identified from secondary data. These factors include: BBP is fun and media rich, it simplifies complex programming concepts, it has poor debugging tools, and it targets a younger audience. These factors are presented to the research participants via an online survey, which they answered using a five-point Likert scale (from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree). The participants were also asked some questions specifically on BBP to measure how much they value BBP as a teaching tool at their level. Out of 73 students who were contacted 32 responded to the survey. A test question was planted in the survey to check for consistency; one answer did not pass the validity test and was removed from the dataset. The data collected from the 31 surveys was analysed using SPSS. A dimensionality reduction technique (Principal Component Analysis) was then applied to the dataset to reduce the number of independent variables. The rotation matrix suggested that the variables may be reduced to five (from 20). Almost all the participants approve of BBP as the ideal approach with Level 2 students, but they also suggest that a text-based programming language should be introduced as well. Based on this research it is suggested to keep using BBP as a pedagogical tool but change the specific current tool used in class, Scratch, to one which offers a translation of the visual steps to text-based. Alternatively, complement the BBP tool with a text-based one.