The problem of this study concerns the performance of students in computer programming following exposure to a computer-aided instruction (CAI) drill in sequencing and practice exercises. The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not student success rates improve in computer programming after completing CAI sequencing drills and practice exercises.

The proposed project, sCool, is an adaptive game-based learning experience designed for STEM education. In this work, we present a new iteration of sCool in efforts to further examine contributing factors of engagement, usability, and comprehension. The newly developed game experience for acquiring object-oriented programming skills is divided into two parts: concept learning and practical challenge. The concept learning part teaches students theoretical lessons of programming through fun gameplay. The practical challenge part allows students to practice programming by completing tasks. This project presents several new game types for both the concept learning and practical challenge parts. The development of these game types spreads across two phases. The first phase introduces two new game types and focuses on extending sCool to support learning object-oriented programming and improve student’s learning comprehension. The second phase builds off of the first phase, introducing another new game type to improve the object-oriented programming learning experience and the game’s overall usability and engagement. During the first phase, three experiments were conducted in a classroom setting with a computer science teacher. Conducting a study involving a total of 39 school students and three teachers, we are able to successfully display an enhanced understanding of different programming concepts. During the second phase, a single experiment was held remotely among a wide group of people, and the participants were self-guided by an instruction document and the sCool application. Conducting a study with 25 participants, we are able to show a significant improvement in the game’s usability and engagement. For future works, further evaluations in-classroom and over a longer course will be useful in assessing the new game type’s effectiveness in teaching object oriented programming. Furthermore, the game should be expanded to support learning more complex concepts in object oriented programming.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka vilka stöd som matematiklärare erbjudits relativt programmering i matematikundervisningen. Därtill avsåg studien att undersöka vad matematiklärare önskar av ett stöd relativt programmering i matematik. Två datainsamlingsmetoder användes: en webbaserad enkät, och en semistrukturerad intervju. 29 enkätsvar erhölls och tre intervjuer genomfördes. Urvalspopulationen för dessa var matematiklärare i Stockholmsområdet. De insamlade data bearbetades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys där olika kategorier med tillhörande koder framkom, för att beskriva lärares uppfattningar av begreppet lärarstöd samt lärarnas åsikter om lärarstöd. Av enkätsvaren erhölls att 11 av 29 lärare upplevde att de inte erbjudits stöd för programmering i matematikundervisningen. Baserat på studiens resultat utvecklades ett lärarstödförslag vars syfte är att motsvara lärarnas önskemål på lärarstöd. Lärarstödförslaget består av ett upplägg för kompetensutveckling och lektionsplaner. / The purpose of the study was to examine which aids relative to programming in mathematics education the mathematics teachers have been offered. Moreover, the study sought to examine the desiderata of the mathematics teachers, relative to aid in programming in mathematics education. Two means of collecting data were used: a web based questionnaire, and a semi structured interview. 29 responses to the questionnaire were collected and three interviews were conducted. The sample population for the study was mathematics teachers in the Stockholm region. The collected data were processed with qualitative content analysis where different categories and codes emerged. The categories and codes describe the teachers’ understanding of the term teacher-aid, and the teachers’ opinion of teacher-aid. The questionnaire responses indicate that 11 of 29 teachers did not perceive that they were offered aid relative to programming in mathematics education. A teacher-aid-proposal with the purpose to match the desiderata of the teachers with respect to teacher-aids. The teacher-aid-proposal consists of a competence development arrangement and lesson plans.