Primary school teachers’ and students’ views about robotic coding course

Abstract

Coding, which is among the 21st century skills, has been included in the curriculum of many countries in recent years from preschool to high school. Primary school teachers are very important in the teaching of coding. In this context, this study aims to reveal the coding education that primary school students receive and the contribution of this course to them from the perspective of classroom teachers and primary school students. In this study, the qualitative method and phenomenological design were used in the study. The study group consists of 8 classroom teachers and 16 primary school students in the city center of Amasya. Easily accessible sampling was used to constitute the study group. In order to obtain the data, a quasi-structured interview form consisting of six questions for teachers and one question for students was prepared. Nvivo 9 program was used to analyze the data. Content analysis has been done as previously created code and themes are used. According to the results of the research, Robotics and Coding course contributes to children's mental development and metacognitive skills such as creative and reflective thinking and improves their problem-solving skills. In addition, it was concluded that Robotics and Coding course should be given to students at an early age, so it should be included in primary school programs.