SUPPORTING THE LEARNING OF COMPUTER PROGRAMMING IN AN EARLY YEARS EDUCATION MOHAMMED YAHYA ALGHAMDI A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Liverpool John Moores University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2017 Abstract The deployment of technology across the globe towards creating efficient learning environments is growing rapidly. In the United Kingdom, for example, the government is investing an enormous amount of money in primary school early years programming lessons. The ideology behind this push is to strengthen the link between the younger generation and the technological growth that will continue to have an ever-increasing impact on their lives and to fuel the pace of innovation. One of the core themes of this area is that of computer programming, which has now become a mandatory subject in early years’ education. As a result of this change, many challenges are being faced by teachers and pupils; for example, teachers require more training and young students need appropriate tools that suit their level of learning. Therefore, this research aimed to help facilitate the process of teaching and learning programming for the young generation via the provision of a suitable technologically educational programming system whereby they can develop their programming skills. This proposed system has some pedagogical characteristics that distinguish it from other programming tutoring systems. The proposed system is based on assessment-driven learning whereby pupils are provided with suitable programming learning that fits their appropriate learning levels. Another characteristic of this proposed system is that pupils are learning programming through a deep learning approach, e.g. thinking and analysing how to solve the problem, not like other existing tools which have attempted only to achieve lower learning outcomes, e.g. remembering a concept and then answering multiple-choice questions. Two experimental studies were conducted on pupils from two UK primary schools to evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed system, and the results indicated that pupils found the proposed system helped them to learn programming, as well as they made good progress and they enjoyed what they were learning. Consequently, it can be interpreted from the research findings that an automated teaching and learning programming system that supports the right pedagogical aspects, e.g. assessment-driven learning with the inclusion of game-based learning, would make the learning process more successful and enjoyable for pupils in early years of education. i Acknowledgements Firstly, I thank God for everything. Then, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisors: Dr Dhiya Al-Jumeily, Dr Abir Hussain and Dr David Lamb for their continuous support of my PhD study, for their motivation, encouragement, and immense knowledge. Their guidance aided me whilst researching and writing this thesis. I would also like to thank all my colleagues at the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences. I am also indebted to the academic, technician and research staff (both past and present) from the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University for their support throughout this research. Finally, my sincere appreciations go to my grandmother, my parents, my wife, my children and my brothers and sisters, for supporting me emotionally throughout writing this thesis and my life in general. ii Publications Resulting from this Research 1. Alghamdi M, Lamb D, Al-Jumeily D, Hussain A, “Introducing an Adaptive Tutoring Support System for Software Development Students”. BCS International IT Conference, pp.1-4.Proc, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 31st March-1st April 2013. 2. Alghamdi M, Lamb D, Al-Jumeily D, Hussain A, "Assessing the impact of web-based technology on learning styles in education." In Developments in eSystems Engineering (DeSE), 2013 Sixth International Conference, pp. 348-353. IEEE, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 16th- 18th December 2013. 3. Alghamdi M, Al-Jumeily D, Hussain A, “An Intelligent Tutorial System to Support the Teaching and Learning of System Development”, 7th international conference on Developments in eSystems Engineering (DESE14), pp.26-30.Proc, Cyprus, 25th-27th August 2014. 4. Al-Jumeily D, Hussain A, Alghamdi M, "The development of an intelligent tutorial system for system development." In Web and Open Access to Learning (ICWOAL), 2014 International Conference on Web and Open Access to Learning, pp. 1-6. IEEE, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 25th- 27th November 2014. 5. Alghamdi M, Al-Jumeily D, Hussain A, ”Supporting Young Students to Learn Computer Programming in an Early Schooling”, In Computer Vision and Image Analysis Applications (ICCVIA), International Conference, pp. 1-5. IEEE, Rome, Italy, 23rd-24th March 2015. 6. Al-Jumeily D, Hussain A, Alghamdi M, “Educational crowdsourcing to support the learning of computer programming”. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning (RPTEL): Special Issue on Emerging Trends for Open Access Learning, vol.10(1), pp.1-15,1st December 2015. 7. Alghamdi M, Symons A, Al-Jumeily D, Hussain A, “Supporting the Learning of Computer Programming in Early Years Schooling”. The iii International Journal of Software Engineering, vol.3, pp.1-11, 30th June 2015. 8. Alghamdi M, Al-Jumeily D, Hussain A, “A Proposed Tutoring System To Support the Learning of Computer Programming: Case Study”, SAI Computing International Conference, pp. 1-6. IEEE, London, UK, 13th- 15th July 2016. 9. Alghamdi M, Al-Jumeily D, Hussain A, “Game Based Learning of Computer Programming in Early Years Education”. The International Journal of Research in Science and Technology, vol.7, pp.1-16, 30th Mach 2017. iv Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ..................................................................................... ii Publications Resulting from this Research .............................................. iii List of Figures ............................................................................................. xi List of Tables .............................................................................................. xii List of Abbreviations ................................................................................ xiv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................. 1 1.1 Research Motivation ......................................................................... 1 1.2 Aims of this Research ....................................................................... 4 1.3 Contribution to Current Research ..................................................... 5 1.4 Overview of the Thesis ..................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 2 TEACHING AND LEARNING PROGRAMMING IN EARLY YEARS EDUCATION .................................................................................. 11 2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................... 11 2.2 Learning Theories in Early Years Education ................................... 11 2.2.1 Description of Programming in Early Years Education ............. 12 2.2.2 The Importance of Programming in Early Years Education ...... 13 2.2.3 Some Educational Programming Tools for Pupils .................... 14 2.2.4 Tutoring Systems in Education ................................................. 16 2.3 Teaching, Learning & Assessment ................................................. 19 2.3.1 Taxonomy of Education ............................................................ 19 2.3.2 Assessment and Feedback ...................................................... 21 2.4 Summary of the Chapter ................................................................. 23 v CHAPTER 3 LEARNING STYLES IN PROGRAMMING EDUCATION . 24 3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................... 24 3.2 Learning Styles ............................................................................... 24 3.2.1 The VARK Learning Style Model .............................................. 24 3.2.2 Learning Styles and Educational Applications/Systems ........... 25 3.3 Technology & Learning Styles ........................................................ 28 3.3.1 The Impact of Learning Style on Technology ........................... 28 3.3.2 The Impact of Technology on Learning Style ........................... 29 3.3.3 Criticism of Learning Styles ...................................................... 30 3.4 Summary of the Chapter ................................................................. 31 CHAPTER 4 GAME-BASED LEARNING: A CASE STUDY .................. 32 4.1 Introduction ..................................................................................... 32 4.2 Online Games ................................................................................. 32 4.3 Game-Based Learning .................................................................... 33 4.3.1 Learning Programming by Game Making ................................. 34 4.3.2 Learning Programming by Playing a Game .............................. 38 4.4 Effects of Gaming on Children ........................................................ 39 4.4.1 Children’s Motivation ................................................................ 39 4.4.2 Deep Learning Approach and Attainment ................................ 40 4.5 The Importance of