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AMARILLA, VINCE S.

Grade XII- Angel Uriel

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

Research Title: School perception of coding education in K-12: A large scale

quantitative study to inform innovative practices

Author: Gary K. W. Wong, H.Y. Cheung, Edwin C. C. Ching, John M. H. Huen

Year Published: 2015

Introduction

Although computer programming was once seen as a skill reserved for

geeks and computer nerds, it’s now regarded as essential ability for 21 st

century learners and is become a key component of many curriculums, even

in primary schools (Stenger, 2017). In this study “School perception of coding

education in K-12: A large scale quantitative study to inform innovative

practices”, it focuses on promoting coding education and integrating it into

school curriculum in Hong Kong, where computer programming has not been

regulated as a compulsory course in K-12 curriculum. The author tries to

investigate the school belief on coding education and their practical

challenges and how do schools perceive the benefits of coding education in

K-12. However, citations and the year when the study published are not

stated in the study in which it is a need to have verifiable facts. According to

Jason Marciano (2020), giving citation in your field is showing your marker

that you are aware of your field in which you are operating, and citation also
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make writing persuasive. It is a way to provide evidences to support the

assertions and claims in your own assignments. Providing citation can be

more credible and can have strong proof in backing up your claims.

Without providing evidences, some readers might disbelieve the

author’s thoughts. Thus, the readers can create bad ideas towards the author

and jump into misleading conclusions that plagiarism might crafted.

Plagiarism is a form of theft of someone else’s ideas, their intellectual property

(Good, 2018). According to Lorenza Shabe (2018), plagiarizing has both short

and long-term consequences for the research. Plagiarism is not in itself a

crime, but like counterfeiting fraud can be punished in a court for prejudices

caused by copyright infringement, violation of moral rights, or torts.

As the research continue in the introduction of the paper, the author

wasn’t able to produce definition of terms in the introduction part of the

research. However, defining keywords is the way to recognize unfamiliar

words that is used in the study. As mentioned by Goes and Simon (2015),

defining important terms is essential to ensure a common understanding of

key concepts and terminology is shared between the dissertation author and

his/her reader, particularly if the term is unusual. On the other side, the author

was able to provide detailed review of existing literature. However, the author

lacks of providing citations in the Review of Related Literature instead, he/she

mentioned different name of person along with appropriate order of numbers

that for the readers it can cause annoyance. As defined by the Bloomsburg

University (2020), the review should enumerate, describe, summarize,

objectively evaluate and clarify the previous research and it should give a

theoretical base for the study and help the author determine the nature of
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his/her research. In addition, saving all applicable resources must be ensure

and it is a need to mention them in your paper, says Editage Insight (2020).

Methodology

A methodology does not set-out to provide solutions. Instead, a

methodology offers the theoretical underpinning for understanding which

method or best practices can be applied to a specific case. Research

methodology is about how a researcher systematically designs a study to

ensure valid and reliable results that address the research aims and

objectives (Jansen and Warren, 2020). The author provides summarized

statement about the research methodology and its sub-topics. In the research

design, the author provides appropriate framework of the research. A very

significant decision in research design process is the choice to be made

regarding research approach since it determines how relevant information for

a study will be obtained (Sileyew, 2019). The design phase of a study

determines which tools to use and how they used (Bhat, 2020). In this

quantitative study, a customized questionnaire was designed being distributed

through the “jotform” online platform. The researcher creates an event for the

survey study that aimed to promote coding education in Hong Kong and

encourage the students to develop the coding skills. In the context and

population, the author briefly summarizes the statement regarding the

participants of the study and the data collection. According to Calistus

Mbachu (2018), data collection is a crucial aspect in any level of research

work. If data are inaccurately collected it will surely impact the findings of the

study. The researcher chose a total of 100 schools both primary and

secondary to participate in the online survey study. The online form provided
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the information page and the consent page before viewing the survey

questions. The schools could choose to exit the questionnaire any time before

the submission. The author provides the outcome of the survey study with the

total of 42 out of 100 schools who submitted their questionnaire.

The instrument for data collection and the validity is included by the

author in the research methodology. In the instrument for data collection, the

author was able to explain the methods of collecting the data. According to

Calistus Mbachu (2018), the system of data collection is based on the type of

study being conducted. The most commonly used methods are: published

literature sources, surveys, interviews, observations, documents and records,

and experiments. In collecting the data, the researcher in the said study is

only conducting a survey. Also, the validity of the study is stated by the

author. The concept of validity was formulated by Kelly (1927, p.14) who

stated that a test is valid if it measures what it claims to measure (McLeod,

2013). The validation processes should have been completed using a

representative sample, demonstrating adequate reliability and validity (Tsang

et. al, 2017). In the study, the questionnaire was translated into English and

Traditional Chinese language, and the author, co-authors and the student

assistants verified the translation before it was published online for the

schools to participants.

Conclusions/Results and Discussions

Coding education seems to be introduced in senior years of primary

education than the secondary schools. In table 1, it shows the total schools

who offer some coding lessons. In figure 1, which is the coding taught in
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primary schools grows from 3% to 31% schools of the total participants. While

in secondary schools, the distribution seems to be fairly scattered in all years

due to the focusing of senior secondary level in the public examination. Table

II and III shows the coding tools that schools have introduced in their coding

education in which introducing wide range of tools to students. The

approximated number of hours in years on teaching the students how to code

show in the table 4 in which it is increased throughout the primary and the

junior secondary education while slightly drop toward the senior years of

secondary education due to the preparation of public examination for the entry

application to university. The lists of some common difficulties of students

learning coding are located in table 5 in which the primary students haven’t

enough background about coding education and may need to be more reliant

to their parents. However, the secondary students may also probably need

more examples and resources to assist them to learn in which the difficulty of

debugging can increase.

The author(s) of this research accomplished a wonderful study upon

providing statistics and reliable information. The researchers provide statistics

in order for the readers to have clear view of what authors trying to explain.

According to Nicole Yu (2018), statistics is the study that deals with the

collection and analysis of data and it is mostly used to keep records, calculate

probabilities, and provide knowledge. The author provided clear view of

statistics by using tables and graphs to have verifiable facts and to justify the

claim. However, there are some of information stated by the author without

citation and the year when it is published. The term citation is used to add or

borrow original work of other author and publisher to give authenticity to one’s
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own work (David, 2019). This research will be a big help for the future study

though lacking of citations in some point and verifiable information is

incomplete. This research has its own uniqueness and I am happy and at the

same time surprised.

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References

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Bloomsburg University (2020). Literature Review: What is a literature review,

what is its purpose, and how to do it. Retrieved from

https://guides.library.bloomu.edu/litreview

David, E. (2019). Why citation is important for academic papers? Retrieved

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Good, S., M.A., LL.B. (2018). Why are citations important elements of

academic writing? Retrieved from https://www.quora.com/Why-are-

citations-so-important-in-the-academic-research-world

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Marciano, J. (2020). Why are citations so important in the academic research

world? Retrieved from https://www.quora.com/Why-are-citations-so-

important-in-the-academic-research-world

Mbachu, C. (2018). 6 Methods to Collect Data for Your Market Research.

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McLeod, S. (2013). What is Validity? Retrieved from

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Shabe, L. (2018) What are the consequences of plagiarism in college?

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