Abstract:

Even in the age of AI, programming remains an important skill. When it comes to learning programming, there are many ways to introduce the subject to the students. When considering learning programming in lower secondary school, the most suitable approach is to use block-based programming. Regardless of the tool of choice, the question is which concepts should be introduced in which order and which will lead to the most sustainable learning success. In this paper, we propose a model of the core concepts of block-based programming, defining a teaching order based on Raymond Lister's overlapping waves concept. He proposes three stages for a novice programmer. The pre-tracing, tracing, and post-tracing phases. To realise our model, we first collected the most important concepts of block-based programming from literature. Then we analysed each concept in terms of the overlapping wave phases and defined corresponding competencies. Based on these findings, we ordered the concepts to account for their dependencies. Our model is based on the idea that some concepts have to be revisited during the learning of other concepts to learn sustainably. The final product is a model of block-based programming concepts, appropriately sequenced according to the overlapping waves concept.

Keywords:

Learning Programming, Competency Model, Teaching Order, education.