Introducing Pre-Service Teachers to Programming Concepts with Game Creation Approach

Abstract. This study aimed to explore whether game creation approach is a feasible strategy for teaching programming concepts to pre-service teachers with no prior programming experiences. Twenty-two pre-service teachers who came from different majors and enrolled in one teacher education course participated in this study. Pre-service teachers were introduced to basic programming concepts and knowledge through instructor’s lectures. They exercised and took practices of Scratch game programming. The findings suggest that game creation approach is practical to motivate and engage pre-service teachers in learning programming concepts. Analysis of participants ’ project code implementation shows that many different fundamental programming concepts have been applied in game project design. Positive attitudes toward game creation approach and programming learning were also revealed in the questionnaire survey results