Hideo Nagumo

Work in progress: Analysis of the relationship between teaching contents and motivation in programming education

In this research the motivational levels of the students in a social welfare department while learning computer programming were analyzed relative to the contents that were taught in each lesson. The introductory programming course was game-based, and Java language was used with Eclipse as the Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The lessons were designed in such a way that as the students finished more and more assignments they were nearing completion of the Tetris game. The motivation levels were measured using a questionnaire based on the ARCS motivation model, which has four factors: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction. As a result, it was found that the motivation of the students changes according to the lesson content.

Analyzing the transition of learners’ motivation to learn programming

In this research, a model of motivation design called ARCS was used to analyze the transition of learnerspsila motivation to learn programming. The students were in an art and design course, and a programming environment specialized for design/art called Processing was used to teach introductory programming to the students. The questionnaire based on the ARCS model was conducted three times: early, middle, and late in the course. From the analysis of the questionnaire, it has been found that the change of the motivation from early to middle in the course was more remarkable than the change from middle to late in the course. Therefore, it was important to raise and maintain the motivation of the learners in the early stage of the course. It has also been found that the correlation between the factors in the ARCS model increased as the learning progressed. Therefore, the instructors should prepare their teaching materials in such a way that the four factors in the ARCS model are balanced.

Comparative analysis of 2D games and artwork as the motivation to learn programming

In order to motivate students to learn programming, many instructors have tried to use games, robots, narative media, artwork, and so on hoping that they would impress their students. However, there has not been any comparative study of these outcomes. In this research, two outcomes of programming, games and artwork have been studied together, and the motivation factors of them have been comparatively analyzed. Processing programming environment was used as the common programming environment for the two outcomes, and the motivation of the students was analyzed using our original questionnaire based on the ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction) motivation model. The questionnaire was conducted three times: early, middle, and late in the course. The average scores for all the four factors in the ARCS model were higher for the game course than the one for the artwork course for all the three trials of the questionnaire. The average scores for the four factors for the game course decreased as the learning phase progressed.

Analysis of the motivation of learners in the in-house training of programming in Japanese ICT industries

In order to plan efficient and effective in-house training for programming, the characteristics of the motivation of learners in an in-house training of programming course, in an information and communication technology (ICT) industry, have been analyzed. In the in-house training course, 42 participants underwent a 16 day training program of Java language. The analysis of the motivation was carried out using a questionnaire based on the ARCS motivation model. As a result, it has been found that the motivation of those who have a technology background is not necessarily higher than that of those who have a non-technology background.

The Transition of the Motivation of the Students in the Art Faculty to Learn Programming

In this research, we have analyzed the transition of the motivation of the students in the art design faculty to learn programming using the questionnaire based on the ARCS motivation model. As a result, we have found that the change of the motivation of the students had been more prevalent in the first half of the course than the second half of the course.

Evaluating algorithmic thinking ability of primary schoolchildren who learn computer programming

In this research, a tool for evaluating algorithmic thinking ability of the primary schoolchildren was developed. This tool is based on the three categories of operations used to construct algorithms, namely, sequential operations, conditional branching operations, and iterative operations. Each question in the tool checks to see if the examinee understands the concept of one of the three categories. The tool was developed to evaluate the educational effect of programming education for middle to upper grade (third to sixth grade) primary schoolchildren. Since both Visual Programming Language (VPL) and Textual Programming Language (TPL) could be used, it was required that the tool could be used by both the group of children who use VPLs and the group of children who use TPLs. To make it possible, no programming language appeared in the questions in the tool. The teaching materials for the programming education were also developed in such a way that the three basic concepts of algorithm, namely, sequential processing, conditional branching, and repetitive processing, were clearly taught. The target VPL in this research was Scratch. The evaluation tool was conducted in a weekend class of programming education for primary schoolchildren, and the algorithmic thinking ability of the schoolchildren was analyzed.

Textual vs. visual programming languages in programming education for primary schoolchildren

The purpose of this research is to compare textual programming languages and visual programming languages from the aspect of motivation. As a textual programming language, Processing programming language was used, and as visual programming languages, Scratch, a derivation of Scratch, Teaching materials offered by code.org, and LEGO Mindstorms EV3 were used. Teaching materials using the textual programming language, and those using the visual programming languages were developed separately. A trial experiment of programming education with the textual programming language was conducted to a cohort of seven primary schoolchildren. Trial experiments with the visual programming languages were conducted twice. In each of them, a cohort of eight primary schoolchildren participated. The motivation of the children was assessed using the questionnaire based on the ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction) motivation model. The results with the visual programming languages suggested that the motivation scores of the children increased as the class progressed when visual programming languages were used. On the other hand, the results with Processing suggested that the variance of Satisfaction factor increased as the class progressed when textual programming languages were used, which further suggested that the Satisfaction scores of the children spread as the class progressed when textual programming languages were used.

Work in progress — Soil watering systems as teaching materials for technology education in junior high schools

In March 2008, the Japanese government announced the revision of the teaching guidelines for junior high schools, which are to be fully enacted in April 2012. According to the new guideline for the subject of Technology Education, “measurement and control by programming”, “growth of living things”, and “energy transformation”, which had previously been elective topics, are to become mandatory. Therefore, it will be necessary to develop compound teaching materials that can be used to teach these topics. In this research, we developed practical teaching material synthesizing these topics. The developed teaching material is an automatic watering system in which soil water is measured and used as feedback to control the watering mechanism. As a preliminary test before introducing this teaching material in junior high schools, we administered mock lessons to university students five times. The average scores for all the question items improved after the lesson, and the improvement was particularly remarkable for the questions about acquiring knowledge.

The Appreciation of Beauty as a Motivation for Learning Computer Programming

The purpose of this study is to analyze whether the appreciation of beauty can be a motivation for the students in the art design area to learn computer programming. For this study, Processing programming environment will be used because it can produce fine artworks with relatively simple codes. The teaching materials used in this study will be designed in accordance with the ARCS motivation model so that the appreciation of the artworks in the Processing windows would motivate the students to learn programming. These teaching materials will be used by the students in the art design area, and the motivation levels of the students will be evaluated using the SIEM assessment standard.