The effect of programming on primary school students’ mathematical and scientific understanding: educational use of mBot

Abstract

This study highlights the importance of an educational design that includes robotics and
programming through a visual programming language as a means to enable students to
improve substantially their understanding of the elements of logic and mathematics. Gaining
an understanding of computational concepts as well as a high degree of student participation
and commitment emphasize the effectiveness of introducing robotics and visual
programming based on active methodologies in primary education. Implementation of this
design provides sixth-grade elementary education students with activities that integrate
programming and robotics in sciences and mathematics; these practices allow students
to understand coding, motion, engines, sequences and conditionals. A quasi-experimental
design, descriptive analysis and participant observation were applied across various
dimensions to 93 sixth-grade students in four primary education schools. Programming
and robotics were integrated in one didactic unit of mathematics and another in sciences.
Statistically significant improvements were achieved in the understanding of mathematical
concepts and in the acquisition of computational concepts, based on an active pedagogical
practice that instills motivation, enthusiasm, commitment, fun and interest in the content
studied.

Keywords: Computational thinking, Elementary education, Programming and programming languages, Robotics, Teaching/learning strategies