Problems of Teaching Pupils of Non-Specialized Classes to Program and Ways to Overcome Them: Local Study

The development and spread of IT-technologies has raised interest in teaching programming pupils. The article deals with problems related to programming and ways to overcome them. The importance of programming skills is emphasized, as this process promotes the formation of algorithmic thinking of pupils. The authors determined the level of pupils' interest to programing learning depending on the age. The analysis has showed that the natural interest of younger pupils in programming is decreasing over the years and in the most productive period of its study is minimized. It is revealed that senior school pupils are characterized by low level of interest in the study of programming; lack of motivation; the presence of psychological blocks on their own abilities in the context of programming; law level of computer science understanding. To overcome these problems, we conducted the second stage of the experiment, which was based on a change in the approach to programing learning, which involved pupils of non-specialized classes of senior school (experimental group). During the study of programming, special attention was paid to the motivational and psychological component, as well as the use of game technologies and teamwork of pupils. The results of the pedagogical experiment on studying the effectiveness of teaching programming for pupils of nonspecialized classes are presented. Improvement of the results provided the use of social and cognitive motives; application of verbal and non-verbal, external and internal means; communicative attacks; stimulation and psychological setting; game techniques, independent work and reflection, teamwork. The positive effect of the implemented methods is shown by the results verified by the methods of mathematical statistics in the experimental and control groups of pupils.