Understanding the Lecturers’ Perception About a Programming

Learning Prototype

Geraldo Carlos Nhadumbuque

, Anabela Gomes

and Maria José Marcelino

Dpt. of Informatics Engeneering, CISUC – University of Coimbra, Portugal

ISEC, CISUC, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

Dpt. of Informatics Engeneering, CISUC – University of Coimbra, Portugal

Keywords: Programming Learning Prototype, Novice Programming, Prototype Utility.

Abstract: The problem of programming learning is a universal phenomenon, which poses enormous challenges in the

initial phase of learning, with countless reports of difficulties and poor performance among students, which

has often resulted in dropouts. In order to minimize this problem, a prototype was created for initial

programming learning inspired by the Mozambican reality, using a visual and storytelling approach,

incorporating culturally relevant narratives and interactive elements that reflect students' daily context. In this

qualitative case study work we intend to understand the lecturers' perception regarding the usefulness of the

current prototype and the possible adjustments necessary to fit well the Mozambican reality, serving as a tool

to support initial programming learning. In the data collection process, semi-structured interviews were

conducted with 7 lecturers from two Mozambican Universities. The content analysis technique was applied

for data analysis. The results show a positive perception of lecturers regarding the usefulness, clarity and level

of organization of the prototype's content as a learning tool for initial programming learning.

1 INTRODUCTION

The problem of programming learning is a universal

phenomenon (Cheah, 2020; Francisco et al., 2016;

Gomes & Mendes, 2007), which poses enormous

challenges in the initial learning phase with numerous

reports of difficulty and poor student performance,

which has often resulted in dropouts (Tan et al., 2009;

Kaya 2018; Kazimoglu 2012). In this sense, the

concern with finding a learning environment that is

favorable for programming learning is something that

has been around for a while.

In 1994, the authors Brusilovsky et al. (1994),

after an in-depth analysis based on an empirical

approach, came up with 3 guidelines for teaching

programming to beginners. They recommend that

programming teaching be done in a simple and

incremental way using a simple language that

progresses step by step to avoid overloading the

student, establishing a visual approach for better

visualizing the semantics of the teaching content.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3696-4069

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8418-8095

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1989-5559

Reinforce the need for visual metaphors that simplify

student learning to achieve visible results. Finally,

they emphasize the importance of using visual

metaphors to simplify learning for students and help

them achieve clear and tangible results.

Studies published between 2005 and 2011

corroborate the idea of using visualization or

simulation of concepts to improve programming

learning and provide greater interactivity Mohd et al.

(2013).

From the perspective of Savidis (2022), to achieve

interactivity in visual programming environments, it

is necessary to consider four essential elements: the

appropriate element metaphor, configurable level of

detail, interactive level of detail, and annotations of

extensible code. Appropriate element metaphor

corresponds to the graphical component of the

interface that seeks to establish an analogy with real-

world components. A configurable level of detail

refers to the ability to manage visual elements as the

complexity or size of the code increases. The

400

Nhadumbuque, G. C., Gomes, A. and Marcelino, M. J.

Understanding the Lecturers’ Perception About a Programming Learning Prototype.

DOI: 10.5220/0013288600003932

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2025) - Volume 1, pages 400-410

ISBN: 978-989-758-746-7; ISSN: 2184-5026

interactive level of detail allows to define code

components that should remain visible during editing.

Finally, code notes are details that allow the user

experience to be directed. The authors Gomes &

Mendes. 2007) in their studies on “An environment

to improve programming education” defined certain

important characteristics to ensure effective learning:

inclusion of teaching content taking into account

students’ learning styles (Cegielski et al., 2011; Maia

et al., 2017), the inclusion of standards that help

students learn, monitoring the student's level of

knowledge, the inclusion of games, inclusion of a

development environment based on algorithms.

Based on this logic, several tools were developed with

different characteristics but with a single purpose: to

provide a learning experience closer to students'

needs. We find various tools based on different

approaches, for example, Blocks approach Price &

Barnes (2015), storytelling approach Suh et al.

(2021), augmented reality perspective Kao & Ruan

(2022), Games approach Barnes et al. (2007), and

others with a hybrid environment that include several

approaches (Chen & Chuang, 2021). There are also

specific proposals made exclusively for mobile

environments.

Block-based tools were developed based on

Blockly

, a Google library created with a visual

programming environment in mind for beginners.

Programming tools like Scratch

, Code.org

, CS First

or App Inventor

were developed using this library.

In a systematic study by Coelho et al. ( 2023),

corresponding to the period from 2011 to 2022 on,

about mobile tools for learning mobile programming

in higher education, they highlight 12 important tools

for initial programming learning with a positive

impact on the teaching and learning process,

providing greater motivation and improved

performance.

Despite the existence of several studies

addressing the issue of programming learning, for the

African context and specifically for the Mozambique

context, there are not many cases in the literature that

highlight this problem.

To understand the particularities of the

Mozambican context, we want to characterize the

learning preferences of Mozambican students.

Therefore, in a first phase, the index of learning style

(Referece), was validated, and predominant learning

styles were identified. We verified that most students

do not have a marked learning style and are placed in

https://developers.google.com/blockly

https://www.scratchjr.org/

https://code.org/

the mild preference with a slight visual, sensing,

sequential, and active tendency.

Next, we sought to understand the panorama of

initial programming learning in Mozambique through

the perception of lecturers and students about learning

difficulties, learning strategies, assessment

mechanisms, barriers, and tools used. Several factors

g were identified. The lack of prior knowledge about

technology is referred to as an influencing aspect, as

in this context, most students only establish their first

contact with programming and computers in higher

education (Reference). In a context where Portuguese

is the official language, the language barrier was

another important consideration because the syntax of

programming languages is based on the English

language.

Furthermore, initial programming learning has

been based on textual programming environments

such as Turbo C and Dev Cpp as preferred

environments (References). However, these

environments were not developed with initial

programming pedagogical considerations in mind but

rather for professional program development.

However, the transition to development environments

needs to be properly monitored to ensure effective

learning, initially adopting more effective learning

tools (Cheah, 2020; Gomes & Mendes, 2007; Mohd

et al., 2013).

Several programming learning environments have

been created and adopted as precursors and

facilitators of the initial programming learning

process, thus presenting integrated environments

essentially based on visual resources. Visual tools

have been seen as alternatives to provide more

student engagement. Among the visual tools widely

used in different contexts, the following stand out:

Scratch (Wilson & Moffat, 2010), Appinventor, code

org. However, the environments provided have the

disadvantage of being in blocks and in the perspective

of several authors, these environments are widely

used in contexts where students learn programming at

secondary level and the resources presented have a

childish tendency (Good, 2018; Nhadumbuque et al.,

2024; Saito et al., 2017). Due to limited technological

infrastructure, in the Mozambican context most

students establish their first contact with the computer

and with the initial learning content of programming

in higher education

In addition, the textual environments widely used

in this context for initial learning phase do not seem

to be suitable for most students due to the prevalence

https://csfirst.withgoogle.com/s/en/home

https://appinventor.mit.edu/

Understanding the Lecturers’ Perception About a Programming Learning Prototype

401

of failures in several computer science courses and

related areas, and due to the lack of interactivity,

negatively affecting the level of student motivation

(Wilson & Moffat, 2010).

Based on all these considerations, we defined a

prototype to help learn initial programming, through

metaphors that reflect the cultural context and the

specific needs of Mozambican students. The present

work is a continuation of a previous one related to the

Perception of Lecturers and Students about an Initial

Programming prototype, in which the usefulness of

the present prototype as a programming learning tool

was studied, having obtained a positive perception

regarding its usefulness as a programming learning

tool. However, certain suggestions were made mainly

in the way the system is presented. .

Regarding the content, the previous study only

covered concepts of variables from creation,

assignment, and accumulation. In this version, there

were improvements and inclusion of new scenarios

related to the decision, repetition structures and

exercises. This work seeks to answer 2 research

questions:

● R1: What is the lecturers' perception of the

prototype regarding the usefulness,

complexity, and level of organization of the

learning content?

● R2: How can the narratives and scenarios of

the prototype be adjusted to better reflect the

reality of students and increase its

effectiveness in teaching and learning?

This paper has three main parts, of which the

introduction provides a brief contextualization of the

work and presents the main contributions in terms of

literature, followed by the methodology section that

seeks to explain the steps to carry out this work, the

description of the prototype, the main results, then the

main results discussion are presented and finally the

main conclusions.

2 METHODOLOGY

This study has a qualitative nature with an emphasis

on a case study. Seven higher education lecturers

from two universities with 7 to 16 years of experience

participated in this study. As illustrated in Table 1,

regarding the level of lecturers, two have PhD level,

4 with master's degrees, and one is graduated.

In the data collection process, semi-structured

interviews were used. As mentioned by Sönmez

(2013), this type of technique has the advantage of

allowing open and closed questions with the

possibility of adapting the questions depending on the

lecturers' responses, obtaining from this form relevant

information. The interviews lasted a minimum of 60

minutes and a maximum of 120 minutes. After the

collection process, lecturers were asked to review the

interview transcripts to validate the information

provided and ensure greater reliability, as mentioned

by (Creswell, 2009).

Table 1: Lecturers profile.

Lecturer Gender Years of

erience

Field area Academic

Level

L1 Male 7 Informatic Graduate

L2 Male 16 Informatic PhD

L3 Male 13 Informatic

/Multmedia

design

Master

L4 Male 15 Informatic PhD

L5 Male 14 Informatic Maste

L6 Famele 14 Multmedia

design

Master

L7 Male 11 Informatic Maste

The closed questions are based on the Likert scale

and seek to respond to 3 main aspects: usefulness,

clarity and level of organization. As illustrated in

table 2, the usefulness of the prototype is based on

question Q1, with response options varying from very

useful (5), useful (4), more or less (3), less useful (2)

to not useful (1). To verify the clarity of the prototype,

question Q2 was used, with response options very

clear (5), clear (4), more or less (3), less clear (2), and

not clear. Regarding the level of organization, the

prototype is based on question Q3, with response

options very well organized (5), well organized (4),

more or less (3), less organized (2) and disorganized.

Table 2: Closed questions.

Q1 How do you assess the usefulness of the content

presented in the context of the concept

resented?

Q2 Does the prototype provide enough clarity to

facilitate learnin

of the conce

Q3 Is the scenario presented well-organized and

accessible for students to understand the

conce

ts?

As illustrated in table 3 the open questions, were

guided by questions G1 and G2 illustrated in table 3,

and as the conversation flowed naturally and

dynamically, other questions were formulated with

the aim of deepening the perception of these concepts.

CSEDU 2025 - 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

402

Table 3: Open questions.

G1 The prototype's narratives and scenarios are able

to create a realistic connection with the students'

reality, especially in the Mozambican context?

G2 What would you recommend to make the

prototype more accessible or effective as a tool

to support the teaching and learning process?

2.1 Ethical Considerations

To safeguard ethical aspects, this work was carried

out respecting the ethical principles established in

Marczyk et al. (2005): respect for the interviewees

expressing the right to participate freely without

coercion, being intended for a beneficial action, being

based on the principle of fairness in choosing

participants. To preserve these principles, all

participants freely expressed their desire to

participate in the study, mainly because it addressed

a problem that also concerns them. The selection of

lecturers to participate in the study was randomly

chosen based on their experience in teaching

programming subjects. They participated freely in the

study and signed the free and informed consent form.

2.2 Data Analysis

In the data analysis process, the content analysis

technique was used. As mentioned Kothari (2004),

content analysis consists of carrying out an analysis

of information obtained from various verbal textual

sources to understand its meaning. From the

perspective of Giannantonio (2010), this method

presents specific characteristics: it requires an

exhaustive reading of the amount of text under

analysis, articulation, or interpretation of the text in

other narratives adjusted to the context under study

that corresponds to the social hermeneutic circle.

Following this approach, the recorded interviews

were transcribed, and the text was organized to

compare differences and similarities. Afterward, the

interviewed teachers were engaged to evaluate how

closely the written content aligns with their

perceptions. The prototype is based on a story that

mirrors the reality of the village of Quissico. The

complete story is described in (Reference). This

Village is located in the southern region of

Mozambique, which was initially a prosperous

region, but after a civil war and being devastated by

floods ended up being affected by a cycle of poverty

that forced the community to find a way out. The

community decided to create a community safe where

members decided to make contributions to the

community, and the ruler was the person responsible

for collecting the amounts. The prototype based on a

web platform was designed taking into account this

story using a storytelling approach to explain several

initial programming learning concepts. It also

integrates a visual environment. Content is presented

in the form of episodes (Table 4).

Table 4: Overview of scenarios.

Units Episodes/Cenarios

Information

tips

Constant

Variable creation

Assignment of value

Visualization of information

Accumulation of quantities

Exercises

Control

structure

Selection structure

Repetition structure for and while

Figure 1: Overview of scenarios.

2.3 Description of Scenarios

The scenarios were divided, considering the types of

information and the main control structures.

Figure 2: Constant concept.

In Figure 2, the concepts are illustrated, based on

the village of Quissico, and a description of those

concepts relating to the history of the village

explained. Then, when clicking on the code button, a

summary in the form of a pseudocode can be viewed

(See figure 3).

Understanding the Lecturers’ Perception About a Programming Learning Prototype

403

Figure 3: Pseudocode representation.

2.3.1 Information Tips

Regarding the notion of variable, several scenarios

are simulated that reflect the creation, assignment of

a value, visualization of value for the purpose,

assignment of value, and accumulation of quantities

and exercises.

● Constant - it is highlighted that throughout a

program, it never changes, just like the village

name and the year of foundation, which

remain the same over time.

● Variable creation - the chief (Ruler) carries the

safe to the designated location, thus creating a

specific location to store contributions. The

variable name is savings.

● Assignment of value - The Ruler goes to the

house, collects the first contribution and

deposits it in the safe. In other words, it

assigned an initial value to it. Now, the safe

has a defined starting value and is ready to

receive additional resident contributions.

● Visualization - the current value of the

“savings” variable is displayed on the vault

display so that everyone in the village knows

how much money has already been raised,

thus serving as a reminder of the progress of

the village's savings and encouraging residents

to continue to contribute.

● Accumulation of amounts - The Ruler

continues his journey of collecting

contributions, and this time he collects the

amount in another house. Assuming that the

previous deposit has already been made, the

value of the safe will be updated.

● Exercises – The prototype includes multiple

choice exercises and exercises to complete the

missing code or instruction. Figure 4 presents

an exercise on value assignment, where the

student is required to complete the

corresponding pseudocode to assist the Ruler

in collecting the contribution and depositing it

in the safe.

Figure 4: Pseudocode completion exercise

2.3.2 Control Structures

● Selection structure - After collecting

contributions, it is decided to check the

available financial capacity to make different

decisions respecting the logic of the selection

structures. It was decided that if the remaining

value is less than 5, hoes are acquired; if less

than 10, machetes; if less than 20, shovels;

and, if larger than 20 saws are acquired.

● Repetition structure - the logic used is

summarized in a while and for repetition

structure. In the first repetition structure, the

Ruler does not know how many times the

cycle will be repeated, i.e. how many houses

he will collect contributions, while in the for

repetition structure he already knows in

advance how many houses he will collect

contributions, i.e. the number of times to

collect contributions.

Figure 5: Repetition scenario.

3 RESULTS

Questions Q1, Q2 and Q3 served as a basis for

assessing the usefulness, clarity, and organization of

the prototype content respectively. The results are

presented below.

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3.1 Lecturers’ Perception

3.1.1 Lecturers' Perception

Regarding the trend of responses in these aspects,

there is a positive and very positive perception, and

the responses vary from very useful/ very clear/ very

well organized to useful/ clear/ well organized, except

in one case of a lecturer (L2) who responded more or

less useful in the concept of information

visualization. From this lecturer's perspective, instead

of viewing the total value available in the safe, it

should be possible to view the content inserted in the

safe. The perception of lectures regarding usefulness,

clarity, level of organization and general perception

of the prototype is described below.

3.1.2 Utility

In relation to the concepts of constant, value

accumulation, variable creation, selection structure,

most lecturers reported that there is a positive

perception, 3 responded very useful, and 4 responded

useful. Regarding the creation of variables, the

attribution of value, repetition structure while and for,

there was also a positive perception, 4 lecturers

responded very useful and 3 responded useful.

Regarding the concept of information visualization,

there is also a positive perception, and 3 lecturers

responded that the content is well organized; 3

reported that it is very well organized, except for one

lecturer who said that the content is not well

organized. In relation to the concepts of repetition and

the exercises presented, the majority have a very

positive perception, with 5 lecturers mentioning that

the content is very well organized and 2 mentioned

that it is well organized.

3.1.3 Clarity

Regarding the response trend about the clarity of the

prototype in the different concepts presented, there

was a positive perception, and the responses ranged

from very clear to clear, except for one case of a

lecturer who responded more or less clearly in the

concept of information visualization. Regarding the

perception of the concept of constant, creation of

variables, decision structure, selection structure,

while repetition structure and formulated exercises,

the majority agree that the prototype presents the

contents clearly; 3 responded very clear, and 4 clear.

Regarding the concept of value assignment and

repetition structure, the majority agreed that the

content is very clear, with 5 responding that the

content is very clear and 2 that it is clear. Regarding

the concepts of information visualization and

accumulation of values, there is also a positive

perception, with 3 agreeing that there is a lot of clarity

in the presentation of this content, three agreeing that

the concept is clear and 1 stating that the concepts are

more or less clear.

3.1.4 Organization

Regarding the trend of responses on the level of

organization of the teaching and learning content

presented, it can be seen that most lecturers have a

positive perception regarding the organization of

constant content, creation of variables and selection

structure. The majority responded that the teaching

content is well organized, of which 3 lecturers

responded that the teaching content is very well

organized and the rest said that it is well organized.

Regarding the concepts of value assignment,

accumulation of values, and repetition structure, most

lecturers responded that the content is very well

organized, with 4 lecturers sharing this opinion and 3

with a view that the content is well organized.

Can the Prototype's Narratives and Scenarios

Create a Realistic Connection with the Students'

Reality, Especially in the Mozambican Context?

In relation to the prototype's connection with the

Mozambican reality, several aspects were considered,

which reveal a positive perception of the use of the

prototype as a learning tool.

L2 lecturer stated that “it is a very simple way of

motivating students to learn ”using examples inspired

by the student's reality. Therefore, the prototype is

considered valuable and allows the students to fit

better into their learning context. Lecturer L5

reinforces this idea, considering that the visual

representation of the prototype directs the student's

perception; images are more explicit than text. From

L5's perspective, using Portuguese in the prototype

greatly enhances student learning, as it aligns with the

language they are most familiar with.

Lecturers L1 and L2 cited the need to promote

greater transparency in the management of values

arising from contributions, and encourage finding

ways to show the community what value is actually

available in the safe. From this perspective, lecturer

L1 suggests the inclusion of a transparent safe as a

strategy to achieve this requirement in order to allow

visualization of the entered value.

Lecturer L3, in turn, refers the need to clarify that

showing the value of contributions on the screen is

the same thing as showing the value to the community

for accountability, and would be relevant to

Understanding the Lecturers’ Perception About a Programming Learning Prototype

405

demystify the concept of screen taking into account

the context of the village as an essential element to

simplify students’ perception.

L2 and L5 lecturers consider the tool useful and

that it can be a vehicle for learning various initial

programming learning concepts.

Regarding the concept of variable, L2 lecturer

recommends the inclusion of more examples in order

to allow for a better elucidation. For example,

considering that they can vary from 2 to 3 scenarios

simulating the same concept, he even gave an

example of using a scenario that explored the

collection of amounts to support donations for flood

victims. Regarding this aspect, lecturer L5 also

mentioned the need to include another example that

explores the concept of constant.

This is a valuable teaching innovation, which

should be widely disseminated so that everyone can

have access, stated L6.

What Improvements Are Recommended to Make

the Prototype an Excellent Tool to Support the

Teaching and Learning Process?

Several improvements were suggested by the

lecturers to make the prototype an effective tool in the

teaching and learning process. An essential aspect of

programming learning is the notion of variables and

their types. In the scenario about creating variables,

this notion is not mentioned. Hence, lecturers L1, L6

and L7 recommend the inclusion of data types that

consider numerical and literal data. As lecturer L6

points out, this characteristic is essential to ensure

alignment with the programming languages used,

such as C, which already incorporate this

characteristic.

Lecturer L1 highlighted that the concept of a

constant is well contextualized, mentioning that "new

paintings can be done or new houses built, but the

name of the village continues Quissico, and the year

of the foundation remains the same".

Regarding the value accumulation scenario,

lecturer L1 also suggests placing the instruction

savings + 10 for savings + increase, and in the

perspectives of L1 and L4, the placement savings =

savings + 10 needs to be clearly explained as it may

be difficult to understand for those who are just

starting.

Lecturers L2 and L4 recommend modifying the

scenario about value accumulation to position

contributions in the 2nd house, as the lecturers'

perception is that it is the same house contribution.

Lecturer L2 emphasized the importance of

incorporating feedback into the exercises, suggesting

that students be directed to revisit specific chapters or

scenarios for improvement if they make mistakes

during problem-solving. He also highlighted the need

to diversify the proposed exercises and include an

exercise on differentiating the concepts of constant

and variables. Lecturer L4 emphasized the need to

include more examples to better clarify the concept of

variables, providing the possibility of creating more

variables in addition to savings, as long as they are

aligned with the context of the history of the village

of Quissico. To improve clarification, the lecturer

suggested creating variables such as family number,

amount collected, and the name of the ruler since only

one example would not explain everything properly.

Lecturer L4 pointed out a limitation in the space

available to display the code in the scenario. He noted

that, as new scenarios are created, the space at the

bottom becomes insufficient. Therefore, he

recommended exploring the space at the top of the

houses to place the code, allowing it to expand as the

content develops.

Furthermore, lecturer L4 observed that when the

contribution value is entered, it appears as $10, but

the visualization shows the value as $10. From the

lecturer's perspective, since this is a visualization

scenario, it is necessary to find a way to harmonize

the visualization of the value in the same way as it

appears in the scenario.

Regarding the code visualization scenario, the

lecturer points out the need to replace the command

"escreva" (write) with the command "imprimir”

(print). He stated that students may create confusion

in this process by doubting whether it is an action to

be performed by the computer or by the student. The

term "imprimir" seems to be the most appropriate

because it dispels doubts and clarifies the action to be

performed by the computer.

Regarding the accumulation scenario, lecturer L5

states that an instruction such as savings = savings1 +

savings2 could be used, where savings1 represents

the value of the first collection and savings2 the value

of the second collection. The logic of the "while" loop

structure could be adjusted so that the ruler continues

to make contributions as long as there are remaining

contributions, or collects values until reaching a

predefined goal, such as acquiring irrigation

equipment

For proposed exercises, the lecturers consider

them to be interactive, and the sections where the

student can complete the missing pseudocode are

especially important for learning.

Regarding the scenario on the selection structure,

lecturer L5 points out that in the initial phase, the use

of "else" could be omitted, giving priority to the

CSEDU 2025 - 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

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simple selection structure, in which the value stops

being displayed only when the option is true.

Lecturer L6 suggested intensifying the exercises

on editing pseudocode and pointed out the importance

of clearly specifying the content of the contributions

to be stored in the safe.

He also highlighted the importance of indicating

moments in which the variable is created, but without

assigning an initial value, and suggested that

"contribution" could be considered a variable, since

each contribution will have a different value.

Lecturer L7 recommended a change in the

sequence of the content presented, suggesting that the

concept of variable be addressed before the concept

of constant.

In addition, the exercises could be interactive,

requiring the editing of pseudocode as a condition for

advancing to subsequent scenarios.

Lecturer L7 also agrees that the prototype is

useful as a teaching and learning tool. However, the

inclusion of an introductory chapter that addresses

content such as operators and rules for creating

identifiers would further simplify perception for

students.

3.2 Discussion

The perception of lecturers about the prototype is

positive and lecturers highlighted that the prototype is

useful, with properly organized scenarios providing

clarity as an initial support tool for initial

programming learning.

The need to include literal and numerical data

types referred to by teachers L1, L6 and L7 to ensure

alignment with the programming languages used in

the initial phase, can be achieved by adding new

scenarios that explore these concepts. The notion of

numerical data can be easily achieved by clarifying

that the savings variable is similar to a numerical

variable that stores the contributions' values. For the

literal variable, you can use the name of the region,

clarifying that this variable assumes the name of the

region and if the village residents name a new region,

the variable name will assume the name of the new

region.

The addition of a literal variable can be used using

the name of the ruler, noting that when changing the

ruler, the content of the variable name will also

change.

There is a positive perception regarding the use of

the prototype as a teaching/learning tool, indicating a

convergence with the results achieved by Yamashita

et al. (2017) about code visualization and memory

images with a positive effect on simplifying

programming concepts and especially the content of

pointers that constitute one of the student's learning

difficulties.

When L2 stated that the use of scenarios that

explore the student's reality is a very simple way of

motivating students to learn, he agrees with the

perspective of

Savidis (2022), who considers the

Appropriate Element metaphor related to the

graphical component of the interface that seeks to

establish an analogy with real-world components.

Teacher L3 reiterates this aspect when he refers to the

need to clarify that showing the value of contributions

on the screen is the same thing as showing the value

to the community for accountability. This aspect is

essential to fit the metaphors with the projected

reality.

Lecturer L3, in turn, refers to the need to clarify

that showing the value of contributions on the screen

is the same thing as showing the value to the

community for accountability and would be relevant

to demystify the concept of the screen taking into

account the context of the village as an essential

element to simplify students’ perception.

L2 and L5 lecturers consider the tool useful and

can be a vehicle for learning various initial

programming learning concepts. For example,

regarding the concept of variables, L2 lecturer

recommends the inclusion of more examples in order

to allow a better elucidation. As for the number of

scenarios, he considers 2 scenarios that portray the

same concept enough. For example, considering that

they can vary from 2 to 3 scenarios simulating the

same concept, he even gave an example of using a

scenario that explored the collection of amounts to

support donations for flood victims. Regarding this

aspect, lecturer L5 also mentioned the need to include

another example that explores the concept of

constant.

It is an aspect to take into account although it is

subjective because in the same way that the L7

teacher suggests learning the concept of variable be

addressed before the concept of constant, the reverse

process can apply since the concept of constant is

simpler than that of variable. As mentioned

Brusilovsky et al. (1994), one of the guidelines for

teaching programming is that the concepts are

conveyed in a simple and incremental way,

progressing step by step to avoid overloading the

student. This aspect is framed insofar as the

placement of concepts in the scenarios is done

progressively from simple to more complex concepts.

Regarding the inclusion of the transparent safe

mentioned by lecturer L1, it is practically possible to

integrate this aspect, and it would make the

Understanding the Lecturers’ Perception About a Programming Learning Prototype

407

interaction more interesting but it does not influence

the perception of the logic of attributing the value of

the concept that is intended to be transmitted.

Furthermore, this simulation only serves as an

analogy to illustrate the attribution process and the

visualization of the assigned value is covered in

another episode, a reference to the most important

thing in this aspect is the visualization of the value

that is intended to be transmitted.

This positive perception converges with the

findings in Akhuseyinoglu et al. (2024), that linking

exercises solved explicitly has beneficial effects on

student learning, contributing to increased levels of

achievement.

The need to include more stories to explain

certain scenarios may be related to the need to

consolidate knowledge. This can also be achieved

using consolidation exercises that make the student

reflect on the learning content and as mentioned in

Ocares-Cunyarachi & Andrade-Arenas (2022), the

exercise has a beneficial effect, thus contributing to

increasing the level of student knowledge.

There is a positive perception in the use of

exercises and scenarios that reflect the student's

reality, converging with the perception of Tan et al.

(2009), who consider the use of exercises and

examples with illustrations as important elements in

student learning. Furthermore, programming skills do

not appear naturally, they need to be trained, and

exercises play a fundamental role in this perspective

(Cachero et al., 2020). However, it would be

beneficial to include more exercises that explore

different learning domains considering the levels of

the bloom taxonomy proposed in Shargabi et al.

(2016) which are related to the development of

understanding, comparison, analysis, application and

creation skills.

This positive perception increasingly reinforces

the use of the prototype to support the teaching and

learning process.

4 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE

WORK

Taking into account the teachers' perceptions

regarding the prototype, the tool appears to be

relevant and promising as a resource for initial

learning of the basic concepts of programming

learning. Teachers highlighted the inclusion of

narratives and scenarios that reflect the local reality

of the student's village of Quissico as important

elements to create the necessary motivation for

students' engagement in the teaching and learning

process. The use of the Portuguese language is also

seen as an element that facilitates learning, as it is a

language with which students are familiar.

The use of visual metaphors based on the students'

context are also seen as elements that can provide

greater interactivity. However, for a better adaptation

to the context, teachers highlighted the need to

include data typification, readjustments in control

structure concepts, and inclusion of feedback in

exercises as elements that can improve students'

learning experience.

The study only presents results related to

lecturers' perception of the system. Although this is a

positive perception, further studies are needed to

obtain feedback from students and advance to the

experimental phase through an observational study to

measure the prototype's performance in the teaching

and learning process.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work is financed through national funds by FCT-

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the

framework of the Project 10.54499/PRT/BD/

152690/2022 and UIDP/00326/2025

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