Block-Based Coding: Changing the Perception
“Block-based” coding, which involves dragging and snapping pieces together, has clear learning benefits. But some high school students see these programming tools as childish, only capable of very basic functionality, or not ‘real programming.’
New Northwestern University research suggests those perceptions can be challenged when students are exposed contradictory experiences, such as block-based programming tools capable of creating professional mobile apps, or curricula centered more on problem-solving and computational thinking than on learning particular programming languages.
“Students want a deeper experience—and, based in part on what they’re absorbing from job listings, media, peers, and programming curricula, they believe they can only get it by learning syntax-heavy programming languages,” said lead author Caryn Tran, who is pursuing her doctorate in computer science and learning sciences, a joint program between the McCormick School of Engineering and the School of Education and Social Policy.
The study, “ Starting from Scratch Again and Again: Tracing the Origins of High Schoolers’ Negative Perceptions of Block-Based Programming” earned a Best Paper award at the Association for Computing Machinery CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems annual conference in Barcelona, the leading international gathering on human-computer interaction.
The researchers interviewed 17 high school students to understand why they often look down on coding programs like Scratch even though it teaches the same logic as "real" typing-based coding.
The researchers found that students develop a few common misconceptions:
- Computer science is like collecting languages — they think the point of computer science is to learn as many coding languages as possible
- Blocks are for little kids — block-based tools get mentally filed away as baby stuff, not serious programming
- Blocks are the problem — when an activity feels limited or frustrating, students blame the block format rather than the activity design itself
These beliefs are shaped by a mix of early experiences, how the tools look and feel, what peers say, and broader cultural ideas about what "real" coding looks like.
The researchers found that these beliefs can change when students see evidence that contradicts them. They called for educators is to be more thoughtful about how and when different coding tools are introduced, so students build a broader, more accurate understanding of what programming actually is — rather than writing off entire categories of tools before they've really explored them.
The work was co-authored by Kristin Fasiang, a third-year PhD student in Northwestern’s joint program in Computer Science and Learning Sciences; Max Kanwal (Stanford University); and Eleanor O'Rourke, associate professor of computer science at Northwestern Engineering and associate professor of learning sciences at Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy.
Tran and Fasiang are members of the Delta Lab, an interdisciplinary research lab and design studio codirected by O’Rourke and Professors Elizabeth Gerber, Matthew Easterday, and Haoqi Zhang.
CHI is the leading international conference on human-computer interaction. This year, Northwestern presented 16 papers, 12 posters, 4 workshops, and 2 interactivity demos.