UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Learning fundamental programming concepts using the ‘To Be A Whale’ game, Case Study Report

Allsop, Y; (2018) Learning fundamental programming concepts using the ‘To Be A Whale’ game, Case Study Report. UCL Institute of Education: London, UK. Green open access

[thumbnail of ToBeaWhale- case study report.pdf]
Preview
Text
ToBeaWhale- case study report.pdf - Published Version

Download (9MB) | Preview

Abstract

This case study report presents teachers and students’ experiences of playing and coding using the ‘To be a Whale’ game. The study specifically evaluated the effectiveness of the ‘To be a Whale’ game for the teaching and learning of fundamental programming concepts. The focus was on both the programming constructions that the students used and the learning behaviours that they displayed, such as debugging, collaboration and resilience. Three secondary schools and one primary school based in England were included in the study. Student and teacher interviews, field observations and screen recording of student’s game making activities were used for data collection. The findings showed that the students learnt to create simple algorithms using sequences and selection. Collaboration between learners, constant conversation and resilience when they faced a problem was also visible during their game making sessions.

Type: Report
Title: Learning fundamental programming concepts using the ‘To Be A Whale’ game, Case Study Report
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Publisher version: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/ioe-ucls-faculty-educati...
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Computer science, Coding, Programming, Computing, Game making, Scratch
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Learning and Leadership
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10049932
Downloads since deposit
44Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item