Placing Event-Action-based Visual Programming in the Process of Computer Science Education

Based on research results and experience, students who finish K-12 education lack the necessary computational thinking skills that they would need to continue their studies effectively in the field of computer sciences. Our goal was to examine the currently used methods and programming languages in K-12 education and to find and present an alternative approach. Using visual programming environments in education to develop students' computational thinking and algorithmic skills is a widespread practice in K-12 education. These environments mostly provide simplified versions of "real" programming languages. In this paper, we present event-action-based visual programming, as an alternative to today's most frequently used methods, which do not restrict the students' development ability to simplified and basic applications while retaining the advantages of visual languages. We organized four workshops in which we presented this programming approach to four distinct groups involved in education. The participants were guided to develop a multiplatform mobile application using Construct 2 event-action-based visual programming. At the end of the sessions we collected data in the form of group interviews and questionnaires on the possibilities of including event-action based visual programming in computer science education. Based on the results, the participants found the method suitable for beginner programmers to help them lay the foundations for more complex, text-based programming languages and to develop a positive attitude towards programming.