Teacher Reviews of Block-Based Coding for K-12 Classrooms

The introduction of block-based coding provided teachers a new method to teach computer science to beginners. Since then, numerous programmable learning technologies (PLTs) utilizing this coding modality have surfaced, each bringing their unique properties to the CS education playing field. But while research comparing blocks to text-based coding have identified benefits and drawbacks of each, the same has not been done solely among block-based coding PLTs, specifically regarding their affordances to teachers' learning objectives and instructional needs. In this poster presentation, we present an experiment seeking to understand which properties of block-based coding environments teachers find most attractive to their pedagogical needs. Teachers enrolled in an online graduate-level CS pedagogy course reviewed 6 block-based coding PLTs, reflecting on the extent to which they would use the tools in their classes. We explain their assignment, guidelines given to scaffold their reviews, and our plan for future analysis.