Teaching Introductory Programming Concepts with Lego MindStorms in Greek High Schools: A Two-Year Experience

摘要

Below, conclusions are drawn of the findings from the 2 series of lessons; they are related to other studies, and proposals for further research are made. The analysis of the findings of the two-year study allowed us not only to make a comparison of the teaching methods applied each but also to formulate certain general conclusions in relation to the application of LegoMindstorms robots within the framework of an introduction to programming in secondary education. Our teaching approaches with the use of physical models present certain features relative to earlier studies: ? Our lessons took place within a specified curriculum at the secondary educational level. This is a significant factor in evaluating the representational value of our results. One consequence of this conditions was, for example, that the participation in the lesson was mandatory thus not all students were highly motivated, as would have been the case in an elective subject. In addition, the lessons occurred within a context, which to some extent determined certain teaching parameters, such as imposed teaching objectives as part of the school syllabus. Furthermore, a relatively large number of students were obliged to participate in the lessons and generally the whole framework within which the lessons were conducted was a typical classroom setting. In some way, therefore, we consider that our lessons correspond more to the average student at secondary education level and subsequently the related findings are fairly representative. ? Our lessons were in the context of an introduction to programming (not robotics or technology). This means that certain aspects of the students' activities were more important than others: for instance, the learning and correct use of common programming structures (such as selection and repeat) were more significant than the constructional features of the robotic systems applied. Thus, while the usual implementation of robotic systems in teaching focuses on construction and "behaviour", we used robots as a means of teaching the basic concepts of programming. ? Our lessons were conducted during two consecutive school years using 2 different programming environments. As previously mentioned, the change of programming