Didactic Connection between Spreadsheet and Teaching Programming (original) (raw)

On Programming and Spreadsheet Calculations

2003

Experiment", "discovery" and "self-teaching" are basic components of active learning. Despite the fact that learners are investigating notions and relationships known long before, their own discovery of something new and unknown for them results in their fascination with an irreplaceable educational value. Spreadsheets are one of many environments that can successfully be used for building stages for similar experimentation. Activities described in this paper show how spreadsheet-based calculations can lead students to a deeper comprehension of algorithms, their execution and notation in a programming language. Their goal is to identify a relationship between a notation of an algorithm and the series of figures produced by its execution. During their investigations, students exploit the adaptability of spreadsheets-each change of an input value evokes the complete recalculation of the entire sheet. The instant recalculations allow the students to observe many "runs" of the studied algorithm, to formulate hypotheses and to verify them much faster than any other methods of traditional programming.

Using the Spreadsheet Paradigm to Introduce Fundamental Concepts of Programming to Novices

In this paper, we explore the potential of introducing fundamental concepts of programming to first year students using spreadsheets. Many students find programming to be difficult to learn as the concepts are new and unfamiliar. On the other hand, spreadsheets have a relatively easy to use interface that provides instant viewing of results of data manipulation. Fundamental concepts of programming can then be indirectly introduced using their spreadsheet equivalents before the students start their formal introductory programming class. This paper specifically focusses on how fundamental programming concepts can be mapped to their spreadsheet equivalents.

Using spreadsheet calculations to demonstrate concepts of programming

International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning, 2005

'Experiment', 'discovery' and 'self-teaching' are basic bricks of active learning. Despite the fact that learners are investigating notions and relationships known long before, their own discovery of something new and unknown for them results in their fascination with an irreplaceable educational value. Spreadsheets are one of the environments that can successfully be used for building stages in similar experimentation. Today, computer literacy courses (i.e. file management, word processing and spreadsheet calculations) frequently precede programming courses. They give us an opportunity to introduce programming concepts using the students' computer-related erudition-by solving problems that they can solve by other means. Spreadsheets have a special value in this sense. Their calculations can be seen as "program outputs of hidden programs". By drawing the curtain away from the hidden processes, one can illustrate concepts and properties that are typical for all programs. Activities described in our paper show how spreadsheet-based calculations can lead students to a deeper comprehension of algorithms, their design, development and execution.

Developing the algorithmic skills through word processing and handling spreadsheets

2010

– Compared to the high number of computer users the proportion of those students who are willing to write programs has dropped seriously. Even those whose curriculum includes programming usually start late and the chance to change their attitude towards programming lessens as they are getting older. A possible solution would be to sneak programming into the primary and secondary education by hiding it behind the scenes of software they use. Students are usually proud of their knowledge of word processing and handling spreadsheets and they think these programs are easy to use. We can thus use these programs to teach algorithms instead of using traditional environments. In this article, through the analysis of a problem, we give examples how we can switch from programming languages to applications and still teach some basic algorithmic skills. Keywords: teaching programming, forming algorithms, spreadsheets, applications. I. INTRODUCTION We all experience that with the increasing numb...

SSaaPP: SpreadSheets as a Programming Paradigm Project's Final Report

2014

This technical report describes the research goals and results of the SpreadSheet as a Programming Paradigm research project. This was a project funded by Fundação para a Ciencia e Tecnologia-FCT: the Portuguese research foundation, under reference FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-010048, that ran from May 2010 till July 2013. This report includes the complete document reporting the results achieved during the project execution, which was submitted to FCT for evaluation on October 2013. It describes the goals of the project, and the different research tasks presenting the deliverables of each of them. It also presents the management and result dissemination work performed during the project's execution. The document includes also a self assessment of the achieved results, and a complete list of scientific publications describing the contributions of the project. Finally, this document includes the FCT evaluation report.

IT Applications as a Didactic Tool in the Teaching of Math (Using of Spreadsheet to Programming)

2011

In this document, we proposed a methodology to teach financial mathematics using a spreadsheet and computer platforms as a didactic tool. We describe the traditional education process in a specific topic of mathematics, “debt restructuring and modeling with equivalent-equation” from the theoretical explanation to design a financial simulator programmed in a spreadsheet. After this, the result will be verified and validated by the designed software.

Spreadsheet Use and Programming Experience: An Exploratory Survey

Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

We report results from a survey on spreadsheet use and experience with textual programming languages (n = 49). We find significant correlations between self-reported formula experience, programming experience, and overall spreadsheet experience. We discuss the implications of our findings for spreadsheet research and end-user programming research, more generally.

Developing computational thinking skills with algorithm-driven spreadsheeting

IEEE Access, 2021

The paper presents the details of a four-year project to test the effectiveness of teaching spreadsheeting with spreadsheet programming, instead of the traditional, widely accepted surface approach methods. The novel method applied in the project, entitled Sprego (Spreadsheet Lego), is a concept-based problem-solving approach adapted from the didactics of other sciences and computer programming. In the experimental group contextualized, real-world programming problems are presented in a spreadsheet environment. A semi-unplugged data-driven analysis is carried out based on each problem, which is followed by the building of a feasible algorithm, expressed by natural language expressions. The coding is completed in the following step by applying a limited number of spreadsheet (Sprego) functions, multilevel, and array formulas. The final steps of the process are discussion and debugging. On the other hand, classical, tool-centered approaches are applied in the control groups. Our research reveals that the traditional surface approach methods for teaching spreadsheeting do not provide long lasting, reliable knowledge which would provide students and end-users with effective problem-solving strategies, while Sprego does. Beyond this finding, the project proves that Sprego supports schema construction and extended abstraction, which is one of the major hiatus points of traditional surface navigation methods. The project also reveals that developing computational thinking skills should not be downgraded, and the misconceptions of self-taught end-users and user-friendly applications should be reconsidered, especially their application in educational environments. Gaining effective computer problem-solving skills and knowledge-transfer abilities is not magic, but a time-consuming process which requires consciously developed and effective methods, and teachers who accept the incremental nature of the sciences.

Towards an Algebraic Approach: The Role of Spreadsheets

This paper presents the results of a Mexican/British collaborative project which is investigating the ways in which students use a spreadsheet to solve algebra problems. Two groups of 14-15 year old students (one in Mexico and one in Britain) worked on a sequence of spreadsheet activities and were interviewed before and after the teaching sequence. The majority of the students in this study became relatively successful at using a spreadsheet to solve algebra word problems.