Monika Mladenovic - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Monika Mladenovic

Journal of Computers in Education

8th International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED2014) : proceedings, 2014

International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016

In the Republic of Croatia Informatics is an elective course in elementary school for students fr... more In the Republic of Croatia Informatics is an elective course in elementary school for students from 5th to 8th grade. When it comes to programming language teachers can choose between BASIC and Logo. There are a lot of new programming environments for learning and teaching programming like Scratch and also new ways of teaching programming like game based learning. This study compares attitudinal and learning outcomes of 7thgrade students programming in Logo and Scratch. The classes were normal classes, non-extracurricular activities. The questionnaire is used to measure the attitude towards programming and programming languages. The test is constructed to measure learned programming concepts in both compared programming languages Logo and Scratch. Results showed that learning Scratch first can provide a better understanding of basic programming concept for novices in elementary school than Logo.

Education and Information Technologies, 2018

There are known misconceptions about variables which are mostly the same since the first studies ... more There are known misconceptions about variables which are mostly the same since the first studies since more than 30 years ago. Consciousness about the misconceptions in programming can be crucial for teaching and learning programming for novices because, if we are aware of them, maybe we can minimise or even prevent them. Researchers mostly conducted researches on an undergraduate or graduate level. There is a lack of studies about variable misconceptions at the K-12 level. Do K-12 students have the same misconceptions as undergraduates? Does the use of different programming languages affect misconceptions? We conducted the pilot study in the school setting among 127 elementary 5th and 6th-grade students. Students were learning to programme in text-based programming languages Logo, and Python with graphical (Logo) and procedural (Python) approaches. In this paper, we present the results of the research in which we aim to give answers to the questions posed above.

This paper explores the motivation of students to participate in the Computer Science competition... more This paper explores the motivation of students to participate in the Computer Science competition. For this purpose, a survey was conducted among 139 participants of the competition in elementary schools as a special form of non-experimental research. As the primary source of data in the study is used a personal statement about the opinions, beliefs, attitudes and behavior, obtained with the corresponding series of standardized questions. The questions are designed to test the importance which students assign to the teacher as one of the factors, and other factors that significantly affect the increase in their motivation to learn Computer Science.

Politehnika, 2021

Učenje i poučavanje algoritama sortiranja je vrlo zahtjevno kako za učitelja tako i za učenike. P... more Učenje i poučavanje algoritama sortiranja je vrlo zahtjevno kako za učitelja tako i za učenike. Problem može biti još veći kada se nastava u cijelosti provodi u online okruženju što je bio slučaj u Republici Hrvatskoj od sredine ožujka do kraja školske godine 2019/20 zbog COVID-19 pandemije. Korištenje alata za vizualizaciju može pomoći u spuštanju razine apstrakcije pri poučavanju složenih koncepata kako bi učenici lakše razumjeli rad algoritama. U svrhu ispitivanja utjecaja korištenja alata za vizualizaciju tijekom online nastave provedeno je istraživanje u travnju i svibnju 2020. godine u dva treća razreda (n=52) jedne Prirodoslovno-matematičke gimnazije. U eksperimentalnoj grupi koristili smo alate za vizualizaciju VisuAlgo i Python Tutor za poučavanje algoritama sortiranja i implementaciju istih u Pythonu. Osim toga su ispitani i stavovi učenika o aktualnom provođenju online nastave U ovom radu su opisani provedba i rezultati navedenog istraživanja.

There's no more doubt that computers and technology have become part of modern human environm... more There's no more doubt that computers and technology have become part of modern human environment. It is hard to find profession in modern society that doesn't rely on informatics. Despite that schools do not follow these changes properly. Digital literacy and informatics (computer science is commonly used in the USA) should be essential components of a modern education with goal to raise the children of today to be able to live in this modern, digital world. Through informatics course in elementary school, students should develop digital literacy skill, and through high school students should master basic science concepts of informatics in addition to digital fluency skills. In the Republic of Croatia Informatics is elective course in the elementary school offered from 5 th to 8 th grade therefore students should be motivated to enroll in such course. Informatics curricula is composed of ten teaching units presented to students through 4 years in elementary school. That mean...

Politehnika, 2021

Education and Information Technologies, 2017

Novice programmers are facing many difficulties while learning to program. Most studies about mis... more Novice programmers are facing many difficulties while learning to program. Most studies about misconceptions in programming are conducted at the undergraduate level, yet there is a lack of studies at the elementary school (K-12) level, reasonably because computer science neither programming are regularly still not the part of elementary school curricula’s. Are the misconceptions about loops at elementary school level equal to those at the undergraduate level? Can we “prevent” the misconceptions by using the different pedagogical approach, visual programming language and shifting the programming context toward game programming? In this paper, we tried to answer these questions. We conducted the student misconceptions research on one of the fundamental programming concepts – the loop. The research is conducted in the classroom settings among 207 elementary school students. Students were learning to program in three programming languages: Scratch, Logo and Python. In this paper, we pre...

International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction

Abstract Since its beginnings in the 1970s, learning to program is a challenging task for learner... more Abstract Since its beginnings in the 1970s, learning to program is a challenging task for learners and educators. In the last two decades, many attempts were made to increase learning programming’s popularity, resulting in the development of block-based programming languages (BPL), widely used to engage children in programming from an early age. The use of BPL showed the benefits for K-12 programming novices in lowering the barrier towards programming. However, by using a BPL as the only programming language, or even using it for a more extended period of time, there is a risk that students will not transfer learned programming concepts to the “real” text-based programming language (TBPL). There is a lack of theoretical or empirical studies dealing with transferring BPL to TBPL at the K-12 level. This study is designed to investigate the effects of BPL MakeCode for micro:bit using a pedagogical approach of mediated transfer for the transfer of learned programming concepts to “real” TBPL Python. According to the national curriculum among 49 sixth graders in the classroom settings, the quasi-experiment was conducted during programming lectures according to the national curriculum. Results confirmed that BPL could successfully be used as a mediated transfer medium to understand the programming concepts in the TBPL.

Computer Applications in Engineering Education

Novices enrolled in introductory programming courses often face many difficulties. These difficul... more Novices enrolled in introductory programming courses often face many difficulties. These difficulties are more emphasized when novices are K–12 students. Many new visual programming languages have primarily been designed to provide a smooth introduction to programming for children. However, at some point, a general‐purpose text‐based programming language should be used. A well‐known and studied method is to visualize program execution to assist novices in forming correct mental models. Although many studies have investigated the effects of using visualizations in teaching and learning, most of them focus on courses taught at the university level. Studies that focus on investigating the impact of program visualizations at the K–12 level are, to the best of our knowledge, scarce. Therefore, we investigated the impact of using program visualizations with a group of K–12 students. Because of the underrepresentation of girls in computer science and known gender stereotypes, we additionally investigated student performance based on gender. Our research included 98 fifth‐grade students from three elementary schools. The lectures in the experimental group included different visualization techniques, including a program visualization tool and PowerPoint animations, whereas the control group had no program visualizations. All students learned Python as part of their curriculum. We present the results of our research in this paper.

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2015

Job market is increasingly demanding jobs in all fields of Computer science. Besides that, most j... more Job market is increasingly demanding jobs in all fields of Computer science. Besides that, most jobs require computer literacy and computer fluency. Students should get these skills through elementary education. In the Republic of Croatia computer science is part of informatics course which is elective course for students from 5th to 8th grade. Because of that, students have to be motivated to elect such course. To investigate motivation and attitude towards elective course of informatics we conducted survey among 1462 8th grade elementary students as a special form of non-experimental research. Results of the research is presented in this paper.

In the last few years, student competitions in knowledge of certain area have become very common ... more In the last few years, student competitions in knowledge of certain area have become very common in elementary schools. Students can compete in one or more school subjects depending on their interest and abilities. One of the goals of every competition is to raise the motivation in learning particular area. Very often, that motivation, in great deal, depends on the teacher himself and his characteristics as well. Some subjects are very interesting and teachers have easy job in motivating them in additional work that is required so students can accomplish level of knowledge needed for competing. Subjects that are demanding and challenging for students, very often have fewer competitors than subjects that are easier.

There's no more doubt that computers and technology have become part of modern human environment.... more There's no more doubt that computers and technology have become part of modern human environment. It is hard to find profession in modern society that doesn't rely on informatics. Despite that schools do not follow these changes properly. Digital literacy and informatics (computer science is commonly used in the USA) should be essential components of a modern education with goal to raise the children of today to be able to live in this modern, digital world. Through informatics course in elementary school, students should develop digital literacy skill, and through high school students should master basic science concepts of informatics in addition to digital fluency skills. In the Republic of Croatia Informatics is elective course in the elementary school offered from 5 th to 8 th grade therefore students should be motivated to enroll in such course. Informatics curricula is composed of ten teaching units presented to students through 4 years in elementary school. That means that 8 th grade students are exposed to all units. This study explores students' perception towards nine teaching units of Informatics curricula. Survey was conducted among 1462 8 th grade elementary students from three regions in the Croatia, during last two weeks of schooling. In this paper the results of research will be presented.

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2015

Journal of Computers in Education

8th International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED2014) : proceedings, 2014

International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science, 2016

Education and Information Technologies, 2018

Politehnika, 2021

Education and Information Technologies, 2017

International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction

Computer Applications in Engineering Education

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2015