EduRe Journal International Journal on Advances in Education Research
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Serious Games for teaching combined basic programming and English communication for non-science major students İbrahim Ouahbi1*, Fatiha Kaddari1, Hassane Darhmaoui2, Abdelrhani Elachqar1, Soufiane Lahmine1,2 1 Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University - Faculty of Science Dhar El Mahraz Laboratory of Didactic, Innovation Pedagogy and Curricular, PO BOX: 1796 Atlas-Fez, Morocco. Email:
[email protected]. Phone: +212 663 161656 2 Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane - Center for Learning Technologies, PO BOX: 1497, Avenue Hassan II, Ifrane, 53000, Morocco Received: 2013-12-16; Accepted: 2014-03-06
Abstract We present a study on the use of serious games in teaching a basic programming course through an English communication class for non-science major students in a Moroccan high school. The objective was to get students interested in learning programming through an interactive communication course. Previous studies have shown that non-science major students lack interest in learning programming either because of poor teaching methodologies or poor interaction within the subject. In order to make the programming course learning environment more motivating, we adopted a new pedagogical approach based on serious games different from the traditional teaching practices. To evaluate our approach, we experiment it with a group of 40 non-science major students arbitrarily selected. The students were divided into two groups, the first group had to create animated English stories and dialogues using Scratch environment while the other group followed a conventional method. A survey was conducted at the beginning of the experiment in order to identify students’ level and prerequisites. Another survey was handed out right after the experiment in order to assess students’ motivation and interest for basic programming. The analysis of these surveys showed that combining the use of Scratch as an environment for learning basic programming, and English stories creation, motivates more non-science students for programming and makes them more autonomous in their learning. 80% of the experimental group believes in continuing to learn basic programming whereas only 5% of the control group does. Moreover, 90% of the first group asserted that creating animated English stories and dialogues with Scratch allowed them to learn better than in a normal English session. Keywords Serious games, basic programming, Scratch, English learning, motivation measurement, non-science students
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1. Introduction This research aims to study the issue of teaching algorithmic and programming module for beginners, especially for non-science major students in a Moroccan high school. The many researches that have been carried out about this topic confirm that there are several difficulties which students face to learn the basic concepts of programming. There are problems that are related to the creation of the program, the control structures and the algorithms (Ginat 2004; Lahtinen et al. 2005). On the other hand, other survey affirm that the poor teaching methods, the weak level of interaction with the students, and the lack of interest and motivation are the main problems in learning programming courses (Bergin and Reilly 2005; Crenshaw et al. 2008; Barker et al. 2009; Coull and Duncan 2011). In the fact, it is so true that almost all the students see that the field of programming is full theoretical and technical concepts (Feldgen and Clua 2003; Bennedsen et al. 2008). Among the solutions proposed to overcome these difficulties, and to make programming available for beginners, we can find: The evolution of the working environment for the students (Brusilovsky et al. 1997; Kelleher and Pausch 2005). Many researches have been taken to study the deep impact of these programming environments on the students who learn programming such as Scratch (Maloney et al. 2004; Wu et al. 2010; Malan and Leitner 2007), StarLogo (Klopfer and Yoon 2004), Kodu (Stolee and Fristoe 2011), GameSalade (Dekhane and Xu 2012), and Alice (Kelleher et al. 2007). Other researchers suggest resorting the video games to make the learning process more motivating for the students (Kafai 1995; Overmars 2004; Barnes et al. 2007; Chaffin et al. 2009; Liu et al. 2011). Using or making serious games allow students to develop their knowledge and keep the digital culture near to the youth and the educational system. In our research, the main objective is to teach the basic notions of algorithm and programming for the non-science major students, to make these students more motivated, our adopted approach intends to use an environment that makes programming easier such as Scratch. Scratch is an open source environment which permits to create games and stories. At the same time, we tried to encourage the students to create their own stories and animations in English; English is the second foreign language in MOROCCO. By doing this, we actually intend to check the following hypothesis: "The creation of games
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by the assistance of a programming environment for novices can improve the motivation of the non-science major students to learn the basic notions of programming, and reinforce the acquisition of skills and competencies in other subjects and domains". As a matter of fact, an experiment has been taken with a group of 40 non-science major students. They were divided into two groups. The first group "A" was asked to use the scratch environment as a method to create games and stories, with the collaboration of the English teacher. The second group "B" was requested to use the classical method by making use of the Pascal environment. The results of the experiment show that the use of an environment for learning programming such as Scratch, and the creation of games and stories gives a large scope to motivate students and make them more autonomous to pursue programming courses. In fact, 80% of the students who carried out the experiment with Scratch think of continuing to learn programming while only 5% of the students who used the classical way of programming do. More than that, the English teacher was really amazed by the quality of programs created by the students and the pronunciation improvement in English of these students. The majority of students have confirmed that Scratch has given them the opportunity to learn more than a normal English session. We can also notice that the students have developed other competencies such as the use of microphones, sound recording, team work, knowledge sharing and collaborative work. These competencies are urgently needed to survive the 21st century (Gee et al 2010).
2. Video games in the classroom According to Kafai (2006), we can find two approaches to exploit games in class: Instructionist Perspectives: The student plays a game which teaches him a data concept at the end. Here, we can mention the "supercharged" game; an electromagnetism simulation game which is used in a school for underserved students (Squire 2004). We can also note the "Metalloman" game to teach bioscience concepts (Marsh 2005), and the "Zombie Division" video game to teach mathematics for children aged between 7 and 8 years old (Habgood 2005). In language teaching, we can mention 3D or 2D immersive environments which allow students to develop and evaluate their cultural and linguistic
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competencies; such environment like "Thélème" (Schmoll 2011), the "Eonautes"1, and Tactical Iraqi (Johnson 2007). For the games registered under the "Behaviorist" theories, we can see that the fun and pleasure of the game is used as a main factor of extrinsic motivation to learn a serious content. In contrast, the games registered under the "Constructivist" theories consider that the motivation of the learner originates from intrinsic factors, the serious content is integrated in the game principles (EgenfeldtNielsen 2006). Constructionist Perspectives: The student is an active learner and a major actor in the process of games creation. In fact, to learn while basing on the creation of games necessities the uses of game design rules. This idea here is a direct application of the constructionist theory (Papert and Harel 1991). We can mention the works of Kafai (1995) in primary classes. Kafai has escorted his students in the creation of video games with the assistance of "LOGO" to allow the other students to learn the notion of fractions as an initiation to the basic concepts of programming. Overmars (2005) suggest using "Game Maker" with his students so that they can create their own games. There are many workshop to lead the students to learn the basics of programming by making use of different environments which facilitate the process of programming such as Scratch (Malan and Leitner 2007; Wu et al. 2010), Alice (Kelleher et al. 2007), Kodu (Stolee and Fristoe 2011), and GameSalade (Dekhane et al. 2012). The constructionist approach share the intrinsic nature of constructivism (Egenfeldt-Nielsen 2006). In addition to that, it lets the creation of games in the center of the pedagogical activities. Thus, the learner is actively integrated in all the decisions of the conception, so the learner is involved in all design decisions and begins to develop technological skills.
1
http://www.eonautes.com/fr/eonautes-serious-game-fle.html. Accessed 25 February 2014
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3. Materials and methods 3.1 The Scratch programming environment As we have mentioned earlier, several novice programming environments have been introduced to avoid the common beginners errors in programming; such problems like syntax and logic errors, and the fact of being interested in problems solving. Instead of typing commands, the majority of these environments use a programming language based on blocks. In this context, each block or brick represents an element of the language like a control structure, an operator, a variable or a function…These last elements can be combined by drag and drop in an intuitive way following a certain logic of calculations to form a computer program (Maloney et al. 2010). In our study, we have opted to use the Scratch environment, developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten research group in the media laboratory of MIT. This environment is very well known for its educational and purposes. Moreover, Scratch is a free programming language. It facilitates the creation of interactive stories, animated cartoons, games, musical compositions and digital simulations. These artistic productions can be shared on the web as well. We can notice that over 4 848 187 projects were shared up to now2.
3.2 Experiment’s processes The experiment was carried out 40 non-science major students (26 girls and 14 boys). The experiment was done in collaboration with the English teacher. Through this experimentation process, we aimed to check the hypothesis that the creation of games with the assistance of programming environment for novices can improve the motivation of non-science major students in learning the basic notions of programming, and reinforce their acquisition of other skills in other subjects such as English. The sample of 40 students was chosen in an arbitrary way as follows (see Table 1).
2
http://scratch.mit.edu/. Accessed 26 February 2014
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Table 1. The experiment design.
Group A
Group B
20 students (14 females and 6 males)
20 students (12 females and 8 males)
A Method based on the creation of stories, and games using the Scratch environment, with the computer studies teacher, there is collaboration with the English teacher.
A conventional method using Pascal environment, with the computer studies teacher
The multimedia room includes 10 computers and a video projector.
Their main goal is to perform a clear and systematic presentation of the essential theoretical contents for a proper development and comprehension of the rest of activities in which the course is scheduled (Biggs, 2011). Other important objective that master classes pursue is to help the lecturer become aware of the comprehension level that students are acquiring with his/her explanations. Particularly, classes are developed in a completely interactive framework in which short numerical applications are solved as well as the student participation is enhanced by means of questions. As a consequence, an environment with a continuous dialogue between student and lecturer is created; therefore, a previous preparation of the student becomes necessary (Collier, 1983). A questionnaire was distributed before the start of the algorithm and programming module to determine the prerequisites of those young learners in programming and identify their gaming habits. As a computer science teacher, of these two groups, I had a first meeting with their English teacher to discuss the hypothesis to check. Moreover, we had together seized the opportunity to have a common session to introduce the Scratch environment and to study of the possibility of using it in an English language session. Before starting the experimentation, we intended to lead the learner to be able to adopt the algorithmic steps to face the situation problem relying on the official instructions in the secondary computer studies, in addition the English teacher has introduced the following objectives to reach: Develop the level of student’s memorization
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Provide more chances for students to practice dialogues already learned Use English language to boost student creativity to have their own stories Give student the opportunity to use advanced technology and software in learning Enhance the autonomy of the learners Reinforce previous knowledge in a more relaxing way There was a session with group "A". The students had an initiation course to the Scratch environment with the presence of the English teacher, during the session; the Computer Science teacher has invited the students to open the Scratch program and try to explore it themselves with no direct intervention from his part, next the teacher carried out a discussion among the students including some questions and answers, the students exchanged their findings and achievements, then start working with Scratch following the instructions discussed before. The Scratch program was used with students without any problem. They have achieved many simple tasks such as small animations, deleting, manipulating and displacing the blocks of commands, all that was done in an intuitive way. After the initiation to Scratch sessions which was led with group "A" without the presence of the English teacher, a second session was scheduled for the same group. During this second session, the English teacher explained his plan of action to the students. First, he proposed to change the interface of the Scratch environment into English urging the learners to communicate with the program in English. Then, during the session, the students were asked to create short stories, dialogues and animations relying on lessons already seen in English course by using the Scratch program. After that, they were guided to develop this program in binomial to conceive functional animations in a way or another. As for group "B", they have just used a classical method. They have used Pascal language to learn programming by trying to have some classical practical work to understand the basic notions of programming. At the end of the algorithmic and programming module, a questionnaire was distributed to check the motivation of the students of the two groups to pursue studying algorithm
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and programming. The questionnaire also would show the opinion of the students in group "A" about using Scratch environment in English sessions. It is important to note here that students were fully guided by explaining the different elements of the questionnaire and also the key words like: creativity, amusing, interesting, cooperative …
4. Results The questionnaire distributed before the experiment aims to identify the prior knowledge of the students in programming. Among our 40 respondents, 97,5% didn’t have any experience in programming except one student who had some exposure to a limited experience. In group "A", only 10% of the students find that programming with the Scratch environment is boring. However, in group "B", 90% of the learners see that programming with a standard environment is monotonous. The creation of games and stories to learn the basic notions of programming lets the students in group "A" be more autonomous and creative. We can also mention the positive reaction of students in group "A" at the end of each practical work; they move around to see each other’s work. Others have shown their creations to other students. There was really an interesting exchange of achievements. In addition, there was an effective dynamism among the members of the group which was totally absent in group "B". When the learners were asked about their desire to pursue studying programming, 80% of the students who have experienced Scratch environment think seriously in continuing their study of programming courses while only 5% of the students who have used a standard programming environment do. At the end of the experiment, the English teacher was really surprised by the quality of the programs created by the students and the improvement in their English pronunciation. 90% of the students in group "A" confirmed that Scratch has given them the opportunity to learn more than a normal English session. We can also add that the learners have acquired other important skills such as the use of the microphone, sound recording, teamwork, and knowledge sharing. These essential skills are very much needed to survive in the 21st century.
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To conclude, it is important to note that at the beginning of the actual school year, the students of group "A" as well as their English teacher have suggested restarting the experience and learning more about programming. This shows that they have had an interesting experience.
5. Conclusions Throughout this article, we have presented the motivation and the results of the use of Scratch environment as an introduction to teaching algorithm and programming module for non-science major students in a Moroccan high school. By its intuitive and simple interface, Scratch permits beginning learners to create their animated stories, games, and dialogues. More than that, Scratch allows the learners to be familiar with basics of programming without begin worried of its syntax. Our steps in teaching has permitted to reinforce the students learning skills in English, learn the basic concepts of programming, and motivate them to learn while being amused. By creating those stories, the students were able to learn the computer logic and to organize the instructions. More ever, they have acquired some technological skills such as the use of the microphone and loud speakers. Also, they analyze their pronunciation in English, repeat it as actors. Above all those skills, the students behave as real game designers. This actual work aims to improve the teaching practices and conditions to allow students to learn and work with the others so as to produce, innovate, and develop their critical thinking to survive the 21st century. The results of the experiment show that the use of the Scratch environment to learn programming combined with communication sessions in a foreign language seems to motivate the students. It also makes them more autonomous to pursue their study of programming. In this context, we suggest the use of a fascilating environment such as Scratch in the introductory courses of programming for non-science major students in high school. As the same time, we can make use their interest in learning other subjects such as languages. This work is still in its beginning and we are looking forward to improving it by further research with largest population and firm steps.
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6. Acknowledgements We acknowledge the help and assistance of Mr. Mohamed BOUGHARDAIN in conducting some of the experiments related to this work. We’re thankful to him.
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