Teaching computer programming with PRIMM: a sociocultural perspective

ABSTRACT

Background and Context: Vygotsky's sociocultural theory emphasises the importance of language, mediation, and the transfer of skills and knowledge from the social into the cognitive plane. This perspective has influenced the development of PRIMM (Predict, Run, Investigate, Modify, Make), a structured approach to teaching programming.

Objective: The objective of the study was to find out if using PRIMM to teach programming had an impact on learner attainment in secondary school, and the extent to which it was valuable for teachers.

Method: We evaluated the use of PRIMM in 13 schools with 493 students aged 11-14 alongside a control group, using a mixed-methods approach. Teachers delivered programming lessons using the PRIMM approach for 8-12 weeks. Data were collected via a combination of a baseline test, a post-test to compare control and experimental groups, and teacher interviews.

Findings: Learners performed better in the post test than the control group. Teachers reported several benefits of the PRIMM approach, including that PRIMM helped them to teach effectively in mixed-ability classes, enabling all learners to make progress.

Implications: PRIMM makes a contribution to programming education research by building on previous work in effective pedagogy for teachers, and encouraging the use of language and dialogue to facilitate understanding.

KEYWORDS:

• Computer programming
• computer science education
• K-12 education
• pedagogy
• sociocultural theory
• Vygotsky

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Now available at https://primming.wordpress.com/2018/08/23/primm-materials-2018/.

2. https://www.ibm.com/analytics/spss-statistics-software.

3. https://www.qsrinternational.com/nvivo.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sue Sentance

Dr Sue Sentance is the Chief Learning Officer at the Raspberry Pi Foundation and a Visiting Fellow at King's College London. Sue's research is around pedagogy for computer programming and teacher professional development in computing, and she has previously worked both as a computing teacher and teacher trainer. She currently leads a team developing content for a government-funded in-service teacher support programme for computing.

Jane Waite

Jane Waite is a computer science education researcher, teacher trainer and school resource developer who currently works and studies at Queen Mary University of London. Jane has twenty years of experience in the IT industry and ten years of experience as a primary school teacher. 

Maria Kallia

Maria Kallia is a research student at King's College London.  Her My PhD is in the field of Computer Science Education and my research interests focus on the pedagogy of computer programming. Prior to her PhD, she worked as a computing teacher for six years in Greece.