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Crucial to the Computing curriculum, programming is considered to be one of its most difficult topics, since it requires the abilities of abstraction, reasoning and representation. In its inherent complexity, the activity becomes especially susceptible to failure. Theories such as Vygostky's treat reflection on error as an integral part of the learning process. Given that the educational potential of the error is usually wasted due to a negative bias, indicating a personal failure for the student, this work aims to investigate, through the realization of a quantitative experiment with a focus on Higher Education, the use of portfolios in the creation of reports that promote reflection on mistakes made in programming disciplines. The study, carried out in two educational institutions, indicated positive effects on students, who went on to record their daily activities in the portfolio and to disassociate the mistakes made of a possible disability or lack of commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the teaching of computational thinking in K-12 is emphasized as a 21st century skill. Computational thinking describes a specific mode of algorithmic reasoning based on concepts and processes derived from computer programming. One way to teach concepts about algorithms and programming are non-digital games, being considered effective and fun learning alternatives. Within this context, this article presents SplashCode, a low-cost board game to complement the teaching of algorithms and programming initially presented through a lecture. The game was developed in a systematic way following an instructional design process and applied and evaluated in a Brazilian public school. Assessment results indicate that it can contribute to the students' learning, as well as to social interaction, relevance and fun, providing a playful, effective and effective learning experience. The game was also evaluated very positively regarding usability facilitating its understanding. One point highly praised by students was the design and choice of Kawaii characters appropriately representing the target audience's preferences. The results of the present work can be used by K-12 teachers for computing education and by researchers and instructional designers to improve the development of instructional methods and materials in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation of programming exercises is a complex process because, for each exercise that a teacher applies, there are common possibilities for solutions. As the teacher does not always know all the possible solutions of an exercise, it is always a challenge for him to justify all the criteria of his evaluation. In order to support the programming evaluation process, this work proposes a strategy based on clustering techniques and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to recognize, from solutions developed by students, examples of solutions that represent, in a rubric scheme, the scores assigned by a teacher. The results of the experiments in real programming exercises solutions indicate that our method recognizes representations of rubrics demanding little teacher evaluation effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite computing being virtually present in all sectors of our society, there is still a lack of knowledge and interest in learning about computing, in general due to the absence of the teaching of computing in elementary school. Teaching computing focusing only on digital literacy is no longer enough, as already in elementary school digital fluency need to be taught, including computational thinking and programming to prepare individuals adequately to deal with the challenges of the digital age. Thus, there is currently a global trend of concentrated efforts on computing education for this age group, and the multidisciplinary approach, combining computing to other disciplines already present within the scholar curriculum, has proven to be an efficient and effective way of teaching. In this context, the present study proposes an instructional unit for computing education in elementary school in a multidisciplinary way, integrated in history classes, following the K-12 curriculum guidelines for computer education and using the Scratch environment. The instructional unit is developed following an instructional design approach and is implemented and evaluated through a case study involving four classes in the fifth and seventh grades of an elementary school in Florianópolis/SC. The results indicate that the instructional unit and the use of Scratch enable the learning of basic computing concepts (specifically programming) in an effective and entertaining way and attract the interest and motivation of students to this knowledge area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]