完成問題策略對基本程式概念教學的學習成效研究─以國小四年級學童為例

Abstract

目前國內中小學資訊教育多著重在應用軟體的學習，雖在日常生活中有其需要性，但國小學生正值各項能力蓬勃發展時期，反覆教導學生應用軟體的操作不免有些可惜。而兒童透過程式設計可以提升高層次的思考能力，像問題解決、邏輯思考能力等，此種能力與教育部（2008）中所提及到中小學學生所應具備的十大基本能力「獨立思考與問題解決」正可相互連結。 美國計算機協會（Association for Computing Machinery, ACM）2003年為國中小資訊教育所發展的課程模式中指出，國小到國中二年級的學生除了要學習基礎的電腦科學，也應整合演算法思考（algorithmic thinking）來解決日常生活中的問題，而程式設計即為培養此種能力的最佳途徑。在資訊普及的社會中，具備讀寫算的基本能力已不敷使用，應將程式設計視為通識教育一般，向下紮根導入到國小教育，讓我們的學生更具備與國際接軌的能力。 但程式設計包含許多複雜的思考歷程，學習者除了要面對陌生的程式語法、指令及程式語言軟體介面，更為困難的是要將腦海所規劃的問題解決方案轉化為具體的程式指令，此種學習歷程常常會造成學習者過多不必要的認知負荷。 因此，引發研究者的研究動機，身為一線的資訊教師在教導兒童學習程式設計時，教學方法應與一般應用軟體教學有所不同，教師必須規劃適當的教學策略來引導學生學習，以期達到較好的學習成效。 本研究採準實驗研究法，以臺北市某國小四年級學生為研究對象，共91人進行分組實驗，歷時十一週。研究目的為探討教師以不同的教學策略教導國小四年級學生學習基本程式概念對其學習成效上的影響。所使用的教學策略為一般程式教學、問題導向教學與完成問題教學。教學內容為控制結構（control structure），分成順序平行、重複執行與條件執行三個子單元，以成就測驗為測量工具，分為各單元形成性測驗及總結性測驗，而測驗類型上均包含紙筆測驗與程式實作。測驗時間為各單元結束後進行形成性測驗，並於教學最後一週進行總結性測驗及填寫學習態度問卷。

實驗數據經統計分析，研究結果如下： 1. 在不同的教學策略下，學生整體學習成效，完成問題組優於問題導向組，且達顯著水準。 2. 在不同的教學策略下，學生在各單元形成性測驗，只有條件執行單元的學習成效有顯著差異，且以完成問題組學習成效優於問題導向組。 3. 在不同教學策略下，針對紙筆測驗成績，學生在重複執行與條件執行單元上，完成問題組優於問題導向組，且達顯著水準。 4. 在不同教學策略下，針對程式實作成績，學生在順序平行與遊戲實作上，完成問題組優於問題導向組，且達顯著水準。 5. 以不同電腦基本能力將學生分群進行統計分析。低能力組別的學生，在不同的教學策略下其學習成效有顯著差異，且以完成問題組優於問題導向組。

About the present information education in Taiwan, it focuses on how to operate application softwares although it do help, but it seems to be not enough, especially it is during the period that elementary school students dig out their potentials. Programming could improve children's thinking skills such as "problem solving abilities" and "logical reasoning"; "think indepently and problem solving" is in the top ten basic abilities announced by the Ministry of Education elementary and junior school students shall have, and programming is one of the methods to reach this goal. In the US, there is a suggestion indicated in the 2003 computer education courses for elementary and junior school students announced by ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) that except for basic computer science, students should learn about "algorithmic thinking" and solve problems through "conditional" and "repetitions". In other words, it will let students fall behind future world of they are only equipped with Read/Write/Calculate abilities.On the contrary, it is necessary to regard programming as one part of general education of elementary school period. Programming includes a lot of complicated thinking process and implementation. For an biginner, except for getting familiar with syntax, command, and programming environments, it would be more difficult to tansfer the problem solving methods into exact programming coding and cause high cognitive load. Therefore, the reason to do this research is to help computing teachers to come up with some good ideas for teaching programming courses. This research is executed by "quasi-experimental approach" and take three forth grade elementary school classes (total 91 students) in Taipei as subjects. After experimental teaching for 11 weeks, evaluation tests about learning acheivement are carried out. The course is about "control structures", and the instructional strategies are "traditional teaching", problem-based teaching", and "completion example teaching". The main purpose of this research is to probe into the learning acheivement of the forth grade elementary school students about basic programming concepts by using different instructional strategies.

The experimental results come up from statistical analysis are: 1. It reaches level of significance that the overall learning achivement is better by using "completion example teaching" strategy compared with "problem-based teaching" strategy. 2. Through tests for different subjects, it is only significant that the learning aceivement is better by using "completion example teaching" strategy compared with "problem-based teaching" strategy in condition statement subject. 3. It reaches level of significance that the learning aceivement is better by using "completion example teaching" strategy compared with "problem-based teaching" strategy through paper tests on repeatation & conditioning implementation. 4. It reaches level of significance that the overall learning achivement is better by using "completion example teaching" strategy compared with "problem-based teaching" strategy through programming exercises of sequence and parallel and game design. 5. To classify students into different levels of computing ability, the learning acheivement is much better by using "completion example teaching" strategy compared with "problem-based teaching" strategy.