Games for Learning Algorithmic Thinking Erasmus Project

Project Title

Games for Learning Algorithmic Thinking

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

Information and communication technologies (ICT) represent one of the fastest growing fields and the main generator of economic and society developments. However, learning outcomes connected to the ICT and to the development of key digital competences are still underrepresented as parts of the school curricula, especially in primary schools across Europe. According to the DigiComp Framework, digital content creation represents one of the five major competence areas, but this area is particularly neglected in schools where students are not given enough opportunities to explore programming and develop algorithmic thinking and coding skills.
Algorithmic thinking helps solving various problems that reflect real issues and in which the application of the knowledge from other areas, especially science, mathematics and logical disciplines is necessary. The learning outcomes related to the coding should be included not only in school subjects directly related to ICT but also integrated into the other school subjects starting already with the youngest students.

The general goal of the GLAT project is the development of algorithmic thinking of younger students which will improve students’ attitudes towards coding and in the long term contribute to reducing the “fear” towards programming and to increasing students’ interest in the selection of future career in the ICT and STEM areas. In order to achieve the goal it is necessary to develop students’ digital content creation competence already from the first grade of primary school, and it can only be conducted by the teachers who have been trained for it.
The main objective of the project is encouraging the integration of computational and algorithmic thinking, problem-solving skills, logic and creativity into the daily teaching through different subjects in students’ younger ages in a fun and attractive way using Game Based Learning (GBL).

One of the main activities of the project was the organization of education for primary junior grade teachers in the form of a blended learning e-course. The GLAT educational model combines three f2f workshops with online learning and has been related to innovative teaching methodologies such as Game Based Learning (GBL), Problem Based Learning (PBL), and Inquiry Based Learning (IBL). During the project period, 20 teachers gathered in the focus group participated in education conducted by the experts from the project consortium.

In the context of the project, syllabus which includes schedules for all workshop sessions with learning outcomes, topics, evaluation methods, and tasks for participants (teachers) has been prepared as well as presentations for the sessions of the workshops, guide for teachers, and a set of learning scenarios that serve as examples of good practice.
The guide for teachers brings lessons about topics related to algorithmic thinking and basic programming concepts as well as those about teaching and learning strategies that can be used for the development of algorithmic thinking and learning programming.

Learning scenarios have been prepared by the teachers – participants of the GLAT education and implemented in classes with their students. After each workshop, teachers prepared learning scenario for chosen subject and topic within the subject. Learning scenarios were developed for primary school subjects: Croatian language, Mathematics, Science, Music culture, Fine arts, etc. The scenarios are, as examples of good practice, integral part of training materials prepared for the GLAT education but can also be used independently as a stand-alone materials and ideas for teachers who would like to modernize their teaching.
All learning materials for GLAT education are available within Moodle e-course “Games for Learning Algorithmic Thinking” as Word and PowerPoint files that lectures of future educations can easily revise and modify.

All resources are freely available in Croatian and English language and it is possible to use them for the organization of informal, non-formal, or formal primary junior grade teacher training or study programs at the institutions that educate future teachers in Croatia, partner countries and beyond.

From the very beginning of the project, dissemination activities have been carried out to inform target audience about the project and to raise interest for project activities and results. The project disseminated the results to large number of different stakeholders at local, regional, national, EU and international level. It is therefore expected that teachers from Croatia, from all the countries involved in the project, as well as other European countries, will show interest for GLAT results.

In that way progress towards the development of algorithmic thinking and improvement of students’ attitudes towards programming will be made which will have a long-term impact on the increase of their interest in the selection of the future occupations in the ICT fields.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 90779 Eur

Project Coordinator

SVEUCILISTE U RIJECI & Country: HR

Project Partners

• SOUTH-WEST UNIVERSITY NEOFIT RILSKI
• Ss. CYRIL AND METHODIUS UNIVERSITY IN SKOPJE
• UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI
• TALLINN UNIVERSITY
• Faculty of Teacher Education University of Rijeka