Use of problem-solving approach to teach scratch programming for adult novice programmers (abstract only)

Novice programmers usually fail to combine abstract concepts and knowledge into program design, even though they know the syntax and semantics of individual statement. Adult novice programmers with little computer background knowledge might face more difficulties than young ones do. Therefore, it's important to choose feasible teaching approach and proper programming language to teach adult novice programmers basic programming concepts. This study aims to investigate the use of problem-solving approach to teach Scratch programming for adult novice programmers. A total of 10 graduate students aged from 24 to 45 participated in this study. In additional to the lectures of Scratch programming concepts, students solved programming problems by the scaffoldings of worksheets, which is a problem-solving approach. The worksheets contained a sequence of questions which guide the principles of problem-solving approach -- problem analysis, solution design, coding, testing and debugging. Students were then asked to design and implement their projects by following this approach after learning fundamental programming concepts. The experiment lasted for one semester. The findings of the questionnaire survey and results of interviews with students revealed that most students had positive attitudes toward learning Scratch programming by the problem-solving approach. They considered this approach useful in enhancing their comprehension of the program design process and helping them to implement the programming project more effectively.