Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Debugging-Focused Pedagogy for Upper Elementary Students in Online Settings

• In Event: Opportunities and Challenges in Equity-Centered Online Teaching and Learning in K–16 Computing Education

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
K-12 students are often exposed to computing with Block-based programming environments (BBPEs) such as Scratch and in informal settings. Research has shown that BBPEs can foster students’ learning of fundamental computing concepts (Maloney et al., 2008) and computational thinking skills (Haddaway et al.,2015). When learning to program, novice students need to read, trace, predict behavior, write, and debug programs. Learning these skills is challenging for novice students and can demotivate them if not carefully supported through the process (Perkins et al., 1986). However, fewer studies explore how K-12 students develop computational skills for code comprehension in BBPEs and far fewer studies examining online settings.

As more K-12 coding and CS programs move online, it is critical to understand how to teach programming and debugging skills effectively and equitably in these less-explored spaces. We designed and studied two implementations, face-to-face and online, of a debugging-focused pedagogy that taught upper elementary students how to read, write, trace, and debug in Scratch 3.0.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
We used constructionism learning theory, wherein students’ personal and social experiences with computational tools guide their learning process, allowing them to learn by constructing artifacts (Resnick, Bruckman, & Martin, 1996). We used reciprocal teaching to guide a dialogue-driven atmosphere with students to support code comprehension by asking students to read, write, trace, predict, and debug (Palinscar & Brown, 1984) and repeated cycles of live group coding, instructional activities for reading, writing, tracing and debugging code, and debug-it exercises (see Figures 1 and 2).

METHODS & DATA SOURCES
Our online iteration consisted of 16 hours of instruction over four weeks. We conducted pre and post CS knowledge assessments, videos, chats, think-aloud interviews, observations, and artifacts from 33 (4th and 5th) African American students (24 females and 9 males). We will analyze students’ think-aloud interviews by deductive coding and using microgenetic analysis (Siegler, 2006) which examines students’ naturally occurring debugging behaviors.

FINDINGS
Results from our face-to-face implementation show that students’ conceptual misconceptions of conditional statements (if-else, if-then-else) and relational operators (‘greater than’) led them to exhibit the certain debugging behaviors. Through our think-aloud interviews, we discovered three common debugging behaviors that upper elementary students struggled with when debugging in Scratch 3.0: (1) swapping between if-then-else to if-then statements, (2) removal of constructs, and (3) changing constructs when students do not understand the behavior of the code. From our online implementation, we expect to find similar debugging behaviors but different debugging challenges and habits. Moreover, we also expect to find the similarities and differences between teaching and debugging-based pedagogy online versus face-to-face, and reveal to what extent students were able to debug online. We plan to present findings from analyzing online learning study during AERA 2021.

SIGNIFICANCE
It is important to understand students debugging challenges and behaviors as they learn how to debug in BBPEs as they are widely used in introductory elementary programming education. By identifying the reasons surrounding students’ debugging challenges and their debugging behaviors it can help us better understand how to support debugging based pedagogy online.

Author

• Yerika Jimenez, University of Florida