Here, students explore, modify and extend pre-formed objects analogous to microworlds, in constrained subsets of full strength languages, typically Java. Objects First is a contemporary approach to teaching programming through object orientation, which seeks to bridge microworlds and systematic programming. Furthermore, microworld languages tend to be relatively impoverished, lacking types and data structures. Many students find the transition from novice coding to problem solving oriented programming problematic (Moors and Sheenan, 2017). However, the microworld approach scales poorly to systematic programming driven by problem solving. Contemporary graphical environments, like Alice and Scratch, augment the turtle world with colourful interacting animated avatars. Here, students compose and repeat sequences of operations to steer and move a turtle that leaves a trail behind it. The archetypal microworld is based on turtle graphics, as exemplified in Papert's Logo language. An influential alternative has been Papert's constructivism, through playful exploration of constrained microworlds. Teaching of programming has long been dominated by language oriented approaches, complemented by industrial design techniques, with little attendant pedagogy.
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