VISUAL VS. TEXTUAL PROGRAMMING: A CASE STUDY ON MOBILE APPLICATION PROGRAMMING BY TEENAGERS

Abstract

Choosing the right way of programming can prevent learning difficulties, contribute to increasing students’ motivation to learn, and make teaching process more effective. The article is focused on assessing which way of programming, visual or textual, is appropriate for intermediate and advanced learners in the context of creating mobile applications. Three ways of programming were examined during an extracurricular programming course for teenagers aged 12-18 with previous programming experience and positive attitude to programming. The course was aimed at programming mobile applications. MIT App Inventor 2 as a visual programming tool and Android Studio with Java as a textual programming tool were chosen. Due to the gap between two programming tools, the method of transition from visual to textual programming using Java Bridge Code Generator and Java Bridge Library as mediators was implemented. The research results are based on the analysis of data obtained from participatory observations, interviews with students, questionnaires and source codes of applications created by students. The case study shows a difference in students’ performance between visual and textual programming in favour of visual programming. However, the difference in students' attitudes toward visual and textual programming was the opposite in favour of textual programming, regardless of age and learning performance. These results suggest that App Inventor visual programming environment is advantageous at the beginning of learning programming, but may be perceived as too limited and not enough motivating for intermediate and advanced students, even though programming in Android Studio professional text-based environment is too challenging for them.