Students perceptions of programming in primary school

Since autumn 2018, teachers throughout Sweden are obliged to relate to programming in one way or another in the teaching, especially in the subject of mathematics and technology education. Although teachers should formally work with programming teaching from the autumn of 2018, programming has been taught in primary school for several years. While there is some research on younger students, most of the research has almost exclusively focused on didactic approaches and strategies used by teachers, educational values and practices that accompany programming teaching, and views of teachers regarding programming teaching. What is still missing is research that highlights how younger students experience these new practices and how they primarily perceive programming in traditional school subjects, such as mathematics. Thus, this paper reports on a thematic analysis of younger students' (n=44) perceptions of programming; students who have been introduced to and been taught programming in mathematics in grade 5.