Using a Physical Computing Project to Prepare Preservice Primary Teachers for Teaching Programing

Abstract

The cultivation of computational thinking and programing education have gained prominence in K-12 education worldwide. Primary school teachers should be proficient in visual programing and using microcontrollers to teach programing courses. To cope with these trends, a learning activity was developed and implemented in Taiwan’s primary teacher education curriculum. The activity aimed to help preservice primary teachers learn about Scratch visual programing and micro:bit microcontroller boards by engaging in a physical computing project involving the design of an educational motion sensor game about energy. The results of the preliminary study found that the preservice primary teachers who participated in the activity were able to collaborate and develop motion sensor games suitable for primary school students. They also demonstrated significant improvements in their computational thinking concepts ( t(10) = 3.13, p < .05) and energy knowledge test scores ( t(10) = 2.74, p < .05). Furthermore, most participants expressed satisfaction with the activity, implying the activity’s feasibility for teacher education.