O ensino de algoritmos para disciplinas de computação no ensino médio: investigando os estilos de aprendizagem

Abstract

All student of a computer course must learn how to elaborate algorithms and to develop code in a programming language. The main method to teach programming is through a set of rules in a programming language. The problem is that some students, particularly the beginners, present difficulties to understand this method. In this regard, there are some strategies used to minimize these problems, such as digital games development. Several academic researches show that digital games development assists the computational concepts learning and stimulates areas of cognitive development such as creativity, attention, concentration, problem solving, logical thinking and memory. But despite all the advantages, some students do not reach to assimilate the computational concepts, so they do not learn how to program. To understand these learning difficulties, the present research investigates and analyzes the learning style of the high school first year students of Cefet-RJ. It is important to know if the learning style of the students can influence in their comprehension and elaboration of algorithms. Besides, if the student, during the game developing, can reach the flow state and feel motivation to learn. For five years different methods were used to teach algorithms, focusing mainly on the development of digital games and animated stories. Through observation, feedback from the students and data collected from the questionnaires, some results were obtained, and recommendation are proposed on how to use the learning style in teaching work