Proposta de uma linguagem composicional visual para ensino de programação

Abstract

The first semesters of undergraduate courses in the field of Computing tend to have higher failure and student retention rates. Introductory programming courses contribute to these indexes. One of the difficulties students face in these disciplines is the excessive focus on operational aspects of problem-solving, associated with languages that follow the imperative paradigm, generating an exaggerated effort to correct syntax errors. This work seeks to present the language Pandora, a proposal for a functional visual compositional language aimed at teaching programming, focused on the semantic aspects of problem-solving and on the composition of solutions from previously elaborated solutions. The language was formally defined using a typed graph grammar and focuses on facilitating code reuse. Pandora is composed of coloured blocks with identifying symbols, making it accessible to students of different age groups. The language intends to facilitate teaching programming logic, algorithms, functional languages, in addition to being used for teaching Mathematics, with computational support or with unplugged activities.