Computer programming has been introduced as the new subject in schools in many different countries recently. As a new subject in the school curriculum, this has brought excitement and challenges for the teachers as well as students. Teaching a new subject means teachers should be well equipped with good subject knowledge and appropriate pedagogies for delivering a new subject. Even though many schools highlights how computer programming is accessible, engaging, fun and teaches computational thinking it still has some challenges while teaching and learning computer programming at school.
Challenges to the teachers.
- Lack of subject knowledge
- Differentiation(Fast and slow learning of students)
- Lack of support
- Lack of resources
- Technical difficulties installing software
- Difficulties finding good and reliable resources appropriate for specific age groups
- Lack of training
- Lack of time
- Assessment(No specific tools to measure progress. For example depending on only programs like scratch where nobody follows instructions)
- Teaching approaches
Challenges for students:
- Gender issues
- Lack of confidence
- Struggle with problem-solving
- Struggle with the understanding of the terms
- Less practice
- Giving up easily
- Less engagement
- Lack of proper guidance
Tips to face challenges:
- Enough resources and training for teachers
- Hands-on experiences
- Collaborative work(pair programming, peer mentoring and collaboration)
- Computational thinking (Decomposition, problem-solving, algorithms)
- Code manipulation, relating to real-world activities and learning through examples
- More practice, more engagement
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