Play‐based learning for programming education in primary school : The Östersund model

Learning to program has been classified as problematic learning with high drop‐outrates and low motivation at university level. Like the learning of a natural language thelearning of syntax and basic techniques in a programming language is easier and more naturalif started at a younger age. This study is based on an evaluation of a pilot project for studentsin a Primary school where computational thinking and programming concepts have beenintroduced as play‐based learning. Students have learnt concepts such as ‘Bubble sort’ byplaying the algorithm without any computer. Later the learnt concepts and algorithms havebeen implemented with Scratch and the Python programming language as main tools.The aim of the study is to describe and discuss a model for implementing computationalthinking and programming for fifth grade students by play‐based learning. As the overallresearch strategy the case study approach was used to evaluate this pilot project. Data hasbeen collected in a combination of observations, interviews and group discussions during a 15session pilot course and three workshops on teacher training. Findings have been analysedthematically and presented using the SWOT framework to identify and discuss strengths,weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the Östersund model.Learning outcomes of the pilot were promising but with individual variations in the studentgroup. The idea of introducing programming and computational thinking as early as in primaryschool seems like a good idea, but the recommendation is to keep sessions play‐based andwith enjoyment as the key feature to engage primary school students. Conducted sessions inthe pilot are worth replicating and so are the teacher training workshops. However, thechallenge that remains is to create a sustainable and scalable implementation of the describedmodel including primary school teachers’ professional development