A Review of Educational Games for Teaching Programming to Primary School Students

Abstract

In recent years, several educational games for learning programming have been developed with promising results. The main purpose of this chapter is to present 22 educational games or platforms that aim to cultivate computational thinking through teaching computer programming concepts to primary school students. A short description of each game followed by a comparative analysis of both their game mechanics and their educational aspects is presented. Additionally, less typical functionalities such as online classrooms, the support for learning analytics, and the creation of new levels are analyzed. This chapter could be useful for game designers and IT teachers who would like to use a game-based approach in the teaching process.