Uso de jogos de tabuleiros modernos para aprimorar a habilidade de resolução de problemas em alunos de Introdução à Programação de Computadores

Abstract

The lack of skilled labor in the programming area has as one of the factors the learning difficulties encountered by undergraduate students in the area of computing in the introductory disciplines of programming. These adversities end up triggering two behaviors, one of them is the abandonment of the course and the other and persist in the higher education course and avoid matters that require programming knowledge. The bibliographic survey points out that traditional teaching has an approach aimed at understanding the syntax (writing) and semantics (sense of commands) of a programming language, while other skills are not worked (problem solving, abstraction, mathematical thinking). Studies indicate that problem solving skills are essential, if not the main one, to develop computer programs. In view of this panorama, a Case Study was conducted at the Federal University of Amapá (UNIFAP) with the use of an approach through Modern Board Games to strengthen problem-solving skills, and to compare this approach, in parallel, disconnected Computer Science activity (CS Unplugged) were used. It is noteworthy that both approaches were used in different groups of 15 students each. Two collection instruments were applied. For the choice of board games, the skills related to problem solving, games that have alignment with these skills, intervention planning and the description of how it occurred were raised. The collection of information occurred through the use of two instruments, one the Social Problem Resolution Inventory and the other Pre/Post-Test, applied before and after the intervention with the groups of board games and disconnected activities. As a result, through the use of the methodology of selection of board games, the interpretation skills (textual and graphic) and logic (sequential definition of actions to be taken, as well as in the decomposition of problems and evaluation of solutions) were improved.