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P. Prinzinger, G. Futschek:
"Task Development for Discovery Learning of Informatics Concepts";
in: "Constructionism 2020", B. Tangney, J. Rowan Byrne, C. Girvan (ed.); issued by: Trinity College Dublin; Trinity's Access to Research Archive, Dublin, 2020, ISBN: 978-1-911566-09-0, 517 - 524.

We describe our own learning process while developing tasks and scaffolding materials for discovery learning of informatics concepts. At our university we perform nearly every day a workshop with school classes of secondary schools. The main aim of the workshops is to involve the school children in interesting informatics activities that make fun and keep in mind for a longer time. We decided to perform mostly activities without use of computer to give more emphasis on thinking about informatics concepts than on information technologies. We quickly found out that a constructive way of learning that allows detection and re-invention of informatics concepts is much better appreciated by the students than presentation and explanation of selected informatics concepts. We present an exemplary development of a task and its scaffolding materials that support the learners in their discovery process.We used a prototyping approach with very short development cycles. The first year of workshops performance shows not only essential changes in the offered tasks but also a rapid evolution of the general workshop format. All changes aim to better fit the ideal goal to achieve active, discovery learning of all individual students with use of constructive and tangible materials. The evolution of the error detecting activity is described in detail. The learning materials changed while we learned how to pose the problem in such a way that the kids can better explore situations so that they find themselves solutions to the problem.

task development, discovery learning, informatics concepts, scaffolding, secondary schools

https://publik.tuwien.ac.at/files/publik_289064.pdf