Interdisciplinary problems of mathematical content as a means of teaching programming to secondary school pupils

Abstract

Abstract The article discusses the main provisions of a practice-oriented approach to teaching programming in a school computer science course. The practice-oriented approach is implemented using a system of practice-oriented problems of mathematical content. The article reveals the classification of practice-oriented problems. Particular attention is paid to Interdisciplinary problems of mathematical content. The article describes the methodology, the main stages and the results of the experiment, during which the effectiveness of the system of practice-oriented problems of mathematical content in the process of formation of pupils’ ability to solve programming problems was tested. Using the methods of mathematical statistics, it was proved that the system of practice-oriented problems of mathematical content is more effective than the system of problems given in school textbooks on computer science. During the experiment, the influence of the system of practice-oriented tasks on the formation of pupils’ ability to solve programming problems was also investigated. It was proved that the use of the system of practice-oriented programming problems more effectively affects the formation of the ability to solve programming problems. For pupils of the experimental group, the differences between the initial level of formation of the ability to solve programming problems and the final level were significant, while for pupils of the control group, they were insignificant. The results of the experiment confirm the positive influence of the system of practice-oriented problems of mathematical content on the formation of pupils’ ability to solve programming problems.