Romero et-al-2016-cidui-5 levelsprogramming

Romero, M., Davidson, A.-L., Cucinelli, G., Ouellet, H., & Arthur, K. (2016). Learning
to code: from procedural puzzle-based games to creative programming. In CIDUI
proceedings. Learning and teaching innovation impacts. Barcelona, Spain: ACUP.
Learning to code: from procedural puzzle-based games to
creative programming
Romero1
, Davidson2
, Cucinelli2
, Ouellet1
, Arthur3
1
Université Laval, 2
Concordia University, 3
Kids Code Jeunesse
Abstract
Learning to code is integrated in a growing number of schools worldwide. However,
learning to code activities are not all the same. Through observing children engaged in
learning to code, our team notices important differences according to the creative
engagement of the learners in the coding-related activities. We identify five levels of
learning to code activities: (1) teacher-centered explanations or tutorials; (2) procedural,
step-by-step programming; (3) creative individual programming; (4) co-creative
programming and (5) participatory co-creation of knowledge through programming.
1. Learning to code as a 21st century skill
ICT skills, collaborative problem solving, (co)creativity and critical thinking are some of
the skills needed to cope with the complexity of the 21st century (Griffin, McGaw, & Care,
2012; Voogt & Roblin, 2012). The concept of digital literacy or ICT skills has evolved
over the last three decades from a techno-centered approach of using the computers and
their programs towards the emergence of socio-constructivist, (meta)cognitive and co-
creative uses of ICT (Azevedo, 2005; Katz, 2013; Romero, Hyvönen, and Barbera, 2012).
However, it is not enough to know about information search, which constitutes the first
stage of the ICT skills in education (UNESCO, 2011). In a lifelong learner posture, we
must achieve the levels of deepening knowledge (step 2), knowledge creation (step 3) and
develop computational thinking (Grover & Pea, 2013; Minichiello, 2014) as a new literacy
that uses the process of abstraction, automation and problem solving (Qin, 2009; Wing,
2006). Computational thinking (CT) is a way to develop new thinking strategies to analyze,
identify and organize relatively complex and ill-defined tasks (Rourke & Sweller, 2009).
Computational thinking is a “set of cognitive and metacognitive strategies linked to the
knowledge and process modelling” such as the identification, decomposition and structural
organisation of items into logical sequences, the capacity of abstraction, pattern
identification and the understanding and creation of algorithms (Romero, 2016, p. 4).
Tchounikine (2016) analyze the CT concept from a computer science perspective and
propose to define it as the set of "concepts and process which are explicitly related to
computer science" (p.2). He highlights the importance of the algorithm concept within CT
and discusses its relation to the concept of programming.

In order to develop CT from elementary education, some educational initiatives have called
for establishing programming as a compulsory activity. Estonia, France and UK are among
some of the countries that have introduced programming in their curricula. These initiatives
rely on the potential of programming to mobilize the different CT strategies and, in some
cases, introduce assessments tools for the CT skill (e.g. code.org). While programming has
the potential to develop CT skills, the way programming activities are proposed to learners’
shows a high diversity in the level of engagement in a creative programming approach. In
some cases, programming has been approached as a procedural task, with little pedagogical
interest beyond learning to code. Some authors have been very critical with regards to
introducing programming in schools (Resnick & Siegel, 2015). They consider it as an
objective per se, or as a market imperative, “motivated by a shortage of programmers and
software developers in the industry, focussed especially on preparing students for computer
science degrees and careers, and they typically introduce coding as a series of logic puzzles
for students to solve” (Resnick & Siegel, 2015, para. 2). The authors of this criticism are
no less than two of the founders of the visual programming tool Scratch, working at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Resnick and Siegel model is not about
learning to code per se as a technical tool, but how coding is a creative tool. They refer to
coding a “new type of literacy and personal expression, valuable for everyone, much like
learning to write. We see coding as a new way for people to organize, express, and share
their ideas” (para. 4).
In this paper, the type of programming we are referring to goes beyond the simple teaching
of codes and the memorization of these codes. We favor teaching coding as a participatory
process that could be, in and by itself, a learning tool or a “mindtool” as Jonassen (1996)
called them. Creative programming goes beyond the consumer approach of technology and
coding. We also argue that coding could be used to (re)assess intergenerational learning.
With the variety of readily available tiny and affordable computers that can be dedicated
to projects (e.g. Rasperry Pi), Open-source software and programming tools (e.g. Scratch,
Blockly, etc.), the act of programming not only reaches unprecedented levels today, but is
also presenting occasions for studying innovative collaborative and progressive pedagogies
and develop a new relation to technologies as creative agents.
A growing number of countries are introducing computer programming education courses
in schools. In Europe, twelve countries have already integrated programming in the
curriculum, including Estonia and the United Kingdom, and seven are in the process of
integrating it, such as France and Finland. In the US, the initiative Hour of Code
(#hourofcode, #heureducode) has a growing popularity at the national and international
level, with more than 9 million of registered users worldwide. The Hour of Code self-
describes the initiative as "is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in
180+ countries. Anyone, anywhere can organize an Hour of Code event. One-hour tutorials
are available in over 40 languages" (Code.org, 2015). The website Hourofcode.com offers
tutorials mainly based on a step-by-step procedural learning approach to programming.
Like Scratch and other visual programming interfaces, the Hour of Code programming is
done by dragging and dropping pieces of codes in a jigsaw puzzle.

In Quebec, the number of declared Hour of Code events were inferior to other Canadian
provinces and other American and European countries (Romero, 2015). However, there
are an increasing number of innovative teachers and organizations, such the Squeaki
RÉCIT team and Kids Code Jeunesse who are actively engaged towards the integration of
programming at school.
2. From procedural learning to code to creative programming
Programming is a knowledge modeling tool (Jonassen, Strobel, & Gottdenker, 2005) with
a huge creative, cognitive (Lajoie, & Derry, 1993) and metacognitive potential (Azevedo,
2005). However, like any other technology, it must be pedagogically integrated in the
classroom activities as a mindtool, and not only a technical tool, to deploy its potential.
While some uses of technologies engages the learner in a passive or interactive situation
where there is no little room for knowledge creation, other uses engages the learner in a
creative knowledge building process where the technology aims to enhance the co-creative
learning process (Romero, Laferriere, & Power, 2016). As shown in the figure below, we
distinguish five levels of creative engagement in computer programming education
education according to the creative learner engagement in the learning to program activity:
(1) passive exposure to teacher-centered explanations, videos or tutorials on programming;
(2) procedural -step-by-step- programming; creating new medias through individual
programming (3) or team-based programming (4), and finally, (5) participatory co-creation
of knowledge through programming.
Fig 1. Five levels of learning to code activities and examples.

We refer to these five components as levels because they corresponds to a progression on
a scale related to the learner engagement on the activity —from teacher-centered activity
to student-centered activity, or even better from teacher-centered activity to student co-
creation of knowledge. In this paper, these five levels are applied to learning to code
activities, but could be applied to other activities including coding as well.
The first two steps are concerned with the actual learning of code, where learning to code
is an objective per se and is decontextualized from the curriculum or from broader
activities. While they might be perceived as low levels of student engagement or too
didactic because they focus on the activity of the teacher, for learners who are not familiar
with programming language, they are essential steps. In fact, these two first steps are
probably one of the only ways to learn the basics of programming before engaging the
learners in the co-creative programming activities of the last three levels. Next, we
introduce each of the five levels with examples.
 Level 1. Passive exposure to programming lectures or resources is the lowest
level of creative engagement of the learner in computer programming education.
This transmissive approach of the lectures given by the teacher or the readings or
videos displayed allows to transmit information, but the learner is not engaged in
any type of interaction. This level has been described under the term Web 1.0.
 Level 2. Procedural (step-by-step) programming engages the learner in a
procedural approach similar to a ‘code recipe’ or step-by-step construction manual
(e.g. code.org/flappy). Despite the fact this approach shows a limited educational
value and is decontextualized from the curriculum, procedural learning
programming could sometimes be an easy first step before engaging the learners in
creative programming activities pegged to the curriculum (Romero &
Lambropoulos, 2015).
 Level 3. Individual content (co)creation through programming engages the
learner in an individual creative activity, where he should develop an original
solution. For example, learners could be individually engaged in creating a solar
system in Scratch to show the position of the Earth and other planets in relation to
the Sun.
 Level 4. Team-based content (co)creation through programming engages a
group of learners in a collaborative creative activity, where he should develop an
original solution to an authentic ill-defined problem.
 Level 5. Participatory co-creation of knowledge through programming
engages not only a group of learners, but also persons from outside the classroom
(other pupils in the school, family members, etc.) in a participatory process where
decision are supposed to be democratic. In democracy, all users are engaged in the
creation process which allows to take advantage of the benefits of inclusive design
(Clarkson, Coleman, Keates, & Lebbon, 2013).
In the last three levels, creative programming engages the learner in the process of
designing and developing an original work through coding. In this approach, learners are
encouraged to use the programming tool as a knowledge co-construction tool. For example,
they can (co)create the history of their city at a given historical period or transpose a

traditional story in a visual programming tool like Scratch (https://scratch.mit.edu/). In
such activities, learners must use skills and knowledge in mathematics (measurement,
geometry and Cartesian plane to locate and move their characters, objects and scenery),
Science and Technology (universe of hardware, transformations, etc.), Language Arts
(narrative patterns, etc.) and Social Studies (organization in time and space, companies and
territories).It is through these three highest levels of programming that the development of
new co-created ideas is possible.
Code learning does not replace or dilute the time allowed in class for the traditional
disciplines; instead, it offers an interdisciplinary development opportunity when its
integration is situated within the three last levels. Despite the pedagogical relevance of
those last three levels of programming we propose, it still is easier to find educational
resources located in the first two levels; code.org is especially ripe with pedagogical
material. Learning to code per se is mostly decontextualized from the curriculum, which
makes it easier to create global educational resources to learn to program. These limits can
be overcome by teachers if they integrate learning to code activities within an educational
situation where pre and post activities allow the development of learning activities that are
more socio-constructivist, creative and curriculum oriented.
Creative programming helps develop computational thinking and enhance 21st century
skills, including (co)creativity and problem solving. In matters related to Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), it was observed that students with
learning difficulties were more committed when they were engaged in digital game
activities and programming of robots (Yasar, Maliekal, Little, & Jones, 2006). In addition,
these activities provide the opportunity to develop computational thinking through
programming and are of crucial importance if we want to help reduce inequalities between
girls and boys face within scientific and technological careers. As citizens with increasingly
important and pervasive digital lives, thinking critically about ICTs is crucial. Developing
skills in computational thinking and coding appears to be a valuable learning strategy to
introduce questions about our usage of technologies and their limitations. Through the
process of understanding coding, learners emerge as more active and creative in their
society; no longer only consumer of media, they are informed citizens making informed
ICTs choices where they better comprehend the ramifications relating to the exploitation
of computers for learning, working, playing and living.
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