Introducing Pre-Service Teachers to Programming Concepts with Game Creation Approach
Keywords:
teacher education; game programming; computer science educationAbstract
This study aimed to explore whether game creation approach
is a feasible strategy for teaching programming concepts to pre-service
teachers with no prior programming experiences. Twenty-two preservice teachers who came from different majors and enrolled in one
teacher education course participated in this study. Pre-service teachers
were introduced to basic programming concepts and knowledge
through instructor’s lectures. They exercised and took practices of
Scratch game programming. The findings suggest that game creation
approach is practical to motivate and engage pre-service teachers in
learning programming concepts. Analysis of participants’ project code
implementation shows that many different fundamental programming
concepts have been applied in game project design. Positive attitudes
toward game creation approach and programming learning were also
revealed in the questionnaire survey results.
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Copyright (c) 2015 Chiung-Fang Chiu
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