The development of multimedia instructional message for the programming language Logo

Rogulja, Nataša. (2018). The development of multimedia instructional message for the programming language Logo. PhD Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Information Science.
(Poslijediplomski doktorski studij informacijskih i komunikacijskih znanosti) [mentor Lauc, Tomislava and Bakić-Tomić, Ljubica].

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Abstract

The title of this dissertation is Development of multimedia instructional message for the Logo programming language. Logo is a high-level programming language of third generation created in 1966 by the authors Seymour Papert, Wally Feurzeig and Danny Bobrow (Papert, S., 1983). The constructivist nature of the Logo language stems from the cognitive learning theory and is based on the 'turtle' principle, i.e. on the auxiliary object in the shape of a graphic pointer which manages basic movement operations as defined by the parameters of programming commands. Most studies of the Logo language focused on the development of cognitive abilities among younger pupils. Few studies were focused on university students (Lee, M. O. C., 1991; Fay, A. L. & Mayer, R. E., 1994) and even fewer on future computer science teachers. The aim of this research was to examine the effectiveness of the multimedia instructional message for the Logo programming language (MIPL) among future elementary school teachers (specifically majoring in computer science). For this purpose educational content was created, which included the basic concepts from nine selected teaching units in Logo programming. The content in the form of a multimedia instructional message was based on eight fundamental principles (multimedia principle, spatial contiguity principle, temporal contiguity principle, coherence principle, modality principle, redundancy principle, individual differences principle and signaling principle), one advanced principle (animation and interactivity principle) of the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (control group) and the broadened decomposition principle of the Cognitive Process Model of Multimodal Comprehension (experimental group). Retention and transfer tests were used in the study with the aim of examining the differences in students’ retention and understanding of the educational content in the form of a multimedia instructional message. The thesis examines the validity of the following three hypotheses: (H1) When solving a set of objective type tasks, which examine content retention and comprehension, students using the multimedia instructional message with the application of the decomposition principle shall accomplish better results than those using the multimedia instructional message without this principle. (H2) When the content output for a set of objective type tasks is geometrical type of data, students using the multimedia instructional message with the decomposition principle shall achieve better results in content retention and comprehension than students using the multimedia instructional message without the said principle. (H3) When the content output for a set of objective type tasks is non-geometrical type of data, students using the multimedia instructional message with the decomposition principle shall achieve better results in content retention and comprehension than students using the multimedia instructional message without the said principle. The subjects were third, fourth and fifth year students studying at the Faculty of Teacher Education of the University of Zagreb. Research was conducted on a non-random sample consisting of 98 students, future elementary school teachers majoring in computer science, with 45 subjects in Zagreb and 53 in Čakovec. The control group consisted of 48 and the experimental group of 50 subjects. Within the scope of the research the experimental method with parallel group was applied. The experimental program ran throughout the course of four weeks in the winter semester of 2015/2016. In the first week the initial lesson took place, during which the pre-test was administered with the aim of gathering basic information about the subjects. This was followed by three weeks of experimental program. The overall participation of the students throughout the four weeks amounted to 160 minutes. During the course of the three weeks no statistically significant differences between the control and the experimental group were found with regard to retention and transfer tests, so that the first hypothesis (H1) was not corroborated. The additionally applied decomposition principle did not contribute to improved retention and transfer of the content of the multimedia instructional message in relation to both the geometrical (first and second week) and non-geometrical (third week) data output, leading to the rejection of the second (H2) and the third (H3) hypothesis. During the first two weeks of the study fifth-year students accomplished a lower score than third- and fourth-year students in content retention tasks. There were no statistically significant differences between third- and fourth-year students in this respect. It can be concluded that the level of prior knowledge in mathematics and logic pertaining to geometric angles, shapes (parallelogram, rhombus) and planes (cube) among third- and fourth-year students in the survey was greater than that of fifth-year students. Limited prior knowledge made the process of cognitive association between program command parameters (moves and rotation angles) and corresponding visual representations of the turtle’s movement difficult, resulting in an inability to follow the program presentation, as well as program reading and writing. In order to be able to follow the program presentation in the form of mental simulation (Sorva, J., 2012), one needed a certain level of prior knowledge in geometry, which would lead to the generation of a mental model of the program concept (commands and structures) presented. However, it is assumed that instead of investing most of their cognitive capacities into program concepts, the subjects used them to grasp the geometry content section. For this reason it was not possible to adequately examine the effect of the decomposition principle on content retention and comprehension, i.e. to examine the acquired programming skills. In addition, the decomposition principle, which was applied to the programming section of the content in the experiment group, may have been an adverse factor in the learning process as it presented an additional essential cognitive load for the students’ working memory. This is confirmed by the subjects’ reports of self-estimated high mental effort. In the third week of the study a very low level of task-solving success and a very high level of self-estimated mental effort were observed in all subjects in both the control and the experimental group. This is attributed to limited prior knowledge in logic (abstract content of the message), unsuccessful generation of mental models in the first two tasks or the use of pre-existing non-viable mental models of program concepts acquired in previous education and built on misconceptions. As confirmed by other studies, this resulted in difficulties with following the program presentation (Kaczmarczyk, L. C. et al., 2010, Simon, 2011), inaccurate reading of the program and writing of unproductive and non-functional programs (Sorva, J., 2012). In the third week of the survey MIPL content included the following programming concepts: variable, MAKE command for the association of numerical values or sets of sign variables, and program structures of WHILE and FOR loops. Given that these concepts are considered the most complex (Dehnadi, S. & Bornat, R., 2006; Kaczmarczyk, L. C. et al., 2010; Sorva, J., 2012), students possibly had non-viable or non-existent mental models from previous education. As the subjects’ prior knowledge in geometry and the level of developed spatial abilities did not match the expected level in this study, results (uncorroborated research hypotheses) suggest the importance of checking subjects’ prior knowledge before conducting future studies. Possible general reasons for such results could be found in the problems students face in the programming process: insufficient mathematical and logical prior knowledge (Byrne, P. & Lyons, G., 2001; Caspersen, M. E., 2007), as well as logical thinking abilities and the development of viable mental models (Bergin, S. & Reilly, R., 2006, according to: Caspersen, M. E., 2007, pg. 56-58). Subject responses to categorized questions showed that 91,8% of them never encountered this kind of multimedia content for the development of programming skills, and 70% of them reported they liked this way of learning how to program. According to control and experimental group participants, this way of learning is attractive because it is different, useful, new, motivating, interesting in its content and learning style, and is not boring or dry. Students pointed out the elements of MIPL they found important: (1) digital way of presenting information as opposed to traditional presentation, for its visual and aural demonstration accompanied by speech; (2) possibility of setting one's own learning pace owing to content interactivity; (3) content structure with examples in the order of complexity from simple to more complex, i.e. a gradual, step-by-step teaching approach; (4) detailed analysis of each procedure and task; (5) possibility to visualize and memorize information more easily; (6) an overview of theoretical part of the content supported by additional explanations in speech and specific examples with a simultaneous display of results; (7) possibility of self-assessment through independent task-solving; (8) enough time at disposal for new concept acquisition; (9) coherence of content and ease of visual perception; (10) ease of content access, support to traditional teaching and the possibility of applying the content beyond the classroom activities. According to responses of subjects from both the control and the experimental group, the content of MIPL can be improved by the following: (1) clearer and more detailed instructions with an addition of more textual definitions and content during task explanation to prevent vagueness of subject matter; (2) additional programming tasks, short tests and practice examples during the learning process, accompanied by feedback; (3) additional visuals and animations to facilitate the visualization and turtle movement (control group) and emphasize the spoken elements (experimental group); (4) introduction of explanatory videos for concepts with a step-by-step approach; (5) introduction of teacher oral presentations to facilitate student comprehension of the task-solving principle. The subjects confirmed the conclusions of numerous previous studies, namely that the degree of their active participation when dealing with visual content is more important than the content presentation method or the representational aspect of visualization (Naps, T. L. et al., 2002; Rapp, D. N., 2005; de Koning, B. B. et al., 2011). Given that the effectiveness of visual cues depends on the level of cognitive effort invested in the processes relevant to meaningful knowledge acquisition (Mayer, R. E., 2008), adding the complete animation principles of flexibility and interactivity to the decomposition principle might improve the learning process even with students’ limited prior knowledge of geometry. In line with previous studies (Rias, R. M. & Zaman, H. B., 2013), the majority of subjects in both groups reported that all the visual and verbal advantages of multimedia content could not replace oral presentation and guidance by the teacher. Scientific contribution of this thesis is the creation and development of the multimedia instructional message for the Logo programming language for future computer science teachers, which brings together the cognitive and the programming-didactical aspect. This is the first thesis which presents the development and application of the multimedia instructional message as an auxiliary cognitive tool for learning the basic concepts of Logo programming language, based on empirically confirmed principles of the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (Mayer, R. E., 2001, 2005, 2014a), as well as the additional decomposition principle from the field of algorithms and data structures, defined according to the model of Cognitive Process Model of Multimodal Comprehension (Narayanan, N. H. & Hegarty, M., 2002). The aspect of the multimedia instructional message for the Logo programming language pertaining to programming methodology can serve as a self-assessment tool for future teachers when testing their knowledge of logic, mathematics and computer science for the topics they will be covering in their teaching.

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