Programming tasks in the Bebras Challenge: Are they a good idea in terms of the contestants' workload?

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60076658%3A12410%2F25%3A43909334" target="_blank" >RIV/60076658:12410/25:43909334 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-73474-8_8" target="_blank" >https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-73474-8_8</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-73474-8" target="_blank" >10.1007/978-3-031-73474-8</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Programming tasks in the Bebras Challenge: Are they a good idea in terms of the contestants' workload?

Original language description

In the Czech version of the Bebras Challenge, programming tasks in which a programming code is built from blocks are used alongside traditional contest tasks. This paper deals with the comparison of these programming tasks with other informatics tasks in terms of the workload of their solvers. Programming tasks can strongly attract the contestants’ attention. The aim of the paper is to find out to what extent pupils pay attention to programming tasks at the expense of other tasks and how this differs for successful and unsuccessful contestants. We prepared national round tests in which there were typically two programming tasks and ten other tasks in each age category. We conducted quantitative research with a total of 184,949 respondents from the 2023 contest.We discovered that pupils spend more time on programming tasks than on the other tasks. When designing tests that include programming tasks, it is necessary to take this into account, and thus either limit the number of tasks, increase the test time, or include less challenging tasks. Our research on programming tasks revealed that, for most age categories, successful pupils ran different versions of their solution fewer times than unsuccessful ones. We also discovered that successful solvers spent more time on the task than unsuccessful solvers. The youngest pupils were the outliers in these findings.Our paper contributes to the understanding of the extent to which it is a good idea to include programming tasks in informatics contests like the Bebras Challenge.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

D - Article in proceedings

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50301 - Education, general; including training, pedagogy, didactics [and education systems]

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Article name in the collection

Informatics in Schools. Innovative Approaches to Computer Science Teaching and Learning

ISBN

—

ISSN

0302-9743

e-ISSN

1611-3349

Number of pages

12

Pages from-to

99-110

Publisher name

Springer

Place of publication

Cham

Event location

Budapest, Hungary

Event date

Oct 28, 2024

Type of event by nationality

WRD - Celosvětová akce

UT code for WoS article

001495113500008