Since last year, I have been discussing with teachers about programming education at the attached Showa Elementary School.
We are discussing what kind of programming education we will provide over the six years, as well as developing a curriculum and holding training sessions for teachers.
I am considering whether programming can be used as one of the tools for learning, rather than just learning programming, when I work with teachers at various schools on curriculum development or when I visit them to give on-site classes.
I always think that programming can be used in students’ daily learning, just as searching for information on the Internet can be used for learning, or creating slides or texts can be used to summarize learning. The problem I face in my own activities is that programming learning is inevitably limited to special class opportunities such as delivery classes. In the first place, it is undeniable that the very involvement of schools in delivery classes or as support from the outside hinders independent programming education at schools.
Therefore, in this project, I am also working with teachers at the attached Showa Elementary School to incorporate programming into daily learning.
In the third grade, after learning how to use Scratch, we tried using it in an assignment to create a math problem. The students created a digital drill that would give a question, determine whether the input answer was correct or incorrect, and then take an action according to the answer. It seemed that the students were not only creating a program, but also thinking about the problem, thinking about reactions to the answers, trying it out for themselves, and expressing the knowledge they learned by solving the problem for someone else in a program, while composing their own math knowledge in a new way. In this class, the students were given a programming sheet created by the 4th year seminar students as part of their graduation research.
Because of the theme of creating free-form sentence problems using 3-digit X 2-digit multiplication as a developmental project in math, and because the children had previously learned how to use Scratch and knew what it could do, they used the sheet to create their own digital drills in Scratch. I think I caught a glimpse of the possibilities of using Scratch in everyday learning from the children’s “yay” when they heard from their teachers that they would be using Scratch. Perhaps the subject matter of creating free-form problems and the guidance of the teacher, who values the children’s free and independent activities on a daily basis, expanded the possibilities of the sheets created by the students.
First graders are working on making an insect robot as part of their year-round study of “living things (insects)” in their integrated learning class. First, the students spent two class periods trying to make a computer-operated robot using a programmable battery, motor, blocks, and construction materials. In subsequent classes, they have been challenged to make insect robots that they are interested in and concerned with. Through their works, we can see each child’s particular interest, such as thinking of a mechanism to reproduce the movement of an insect, applying the movement created by controlling a motor with a computer to the movement of an insect, and focusing on the mechanism and appearance of an insect. I believe that this is not simply a class about making an insect robot, but a class made possible by the fact that the children have learned how to use a new programmable battery tool in the course of their study of insects throughout the year. Building an insect robot is a difficult task, even for robotics experts. However, looking at the children, I also feel that their approach to building such robots is the same as that of experts. For issues that they cannot solve on their own, they try by trial and error, ask for help from their peers around them, research on the Internet or in books, and then use every means in turn to solve the problem, such as asking for help from adults. With guidance from their homeroom teachers on “what to do when they have a problem,” the classroom begins to look like a workshop for generating new ideas. When each child overcame a problem, the cheers of “I did it!”, “Look at this!”, and above all, the shining and proud expressions on their faces (and sad ones when things didn’t go well) are very impressive. I believe this was made possible by the fact that the program was not just a programming experience, but was positioned as part of their daily learning. I also feel that the class was made possible by the fact that the homeroom teachers spent a lot of time carefully looking at the photos, videos, and review sheets submitted in the LoiLoNotebook of each child’s robot building process, considering advice for the next time, and in some cases, adding necessary materials. I feel that this is the reason why I am in the classroom.
I realize once again that there are things that can only be learned through working together with children and teachers in the classroom.
I am grateful to the teachers and children for giving me this precious opportunity.