Use of Arithmetic Operation Skills in Block Based Programming Environments: A Comparative Case Study

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the 7th grade middle school students' processes of creating and calculating arithmetic expressions in the code.org block based coding environments. For this purpose, the reasons of students' behaviors in coding environments are tried to be revealed by comparing them with student behaviors in traditional environments. The participants of the study, which was conducted as a comparative case study, are composed of 10 students studying at a public school. Arithmetic Operation Test developed by the researchers, Student Screen Records taken from the code.org platform, Student Opinion Form consisting of three open-ended questions, Unstructured Interviews held with the students and Field Notes were used as data collection tools in this study. Descriptive analyzes were performed in order to compare the data obtained from different cases and the analysis results were expressed in different categories. In conclusion, it has been observed that the students were not as successful in coding environments as expected and use arithmetical operation skills more successfully in traditional environments than block based coding environments. In particular, it has been revealed that the use of blocks and the way in which code.org handles arithmetic operations cause the students cannot transfer their existing knowledge to the coding environments.The purpose of this study is to examine the 7th grade middle school students' processes of creating and calculating arithmetic expressions in the code.org block based coding environments. For this purpose, the reasons of students' behaviors in coding environments are tried to be revealed by comparing them with student behaviors in traditional environments. The participants of the study, which was conducted as a comparative case study, are composed of 10 students studying at a public school. Arithmetic Operation Test developed by the researchers, Student Screen Records taken from the code.org platform, Student Opinion Form consisting of three open-ended questions, Unstructured Interviews held with the students and Field Notes were used as data collection tools in this study. Descriptive analyzes were performed in order to compare the data obtained from different cases and the analysis results were expressed in different categories. In conclusion, it has been observed that the students were not as successful in coding environments as expected and use arithmetical operation skills more successfully in traditional environments than block based coding environments. In particular, it has been revealed that the use of blocks and the way in which code.org handles arithmetic operations cause the students cannot transfer their existing knowledge to the coding environments.