Abstract Teachers in England are required to ensure that learners from the age of five are taught about algorithms and program design. Yet, there is evidence that despite teachers reporting that design is important, they are not converting this into classroom practice. This paper describes a survey study, in which we explored teachers’ difficulties in using design. We surveyed 207 teachers asking them free-text questions on their use of design in teaching programming and their views of pupils’ responses to using design. In the survey, we also investigated teachers’ understanding of the term algorithm, an essential concept which may be a contributing factor in their difficulties with design. We provide underpinning data on the difficulties of using design that teachers of pupils aged from 5 to 11 years old (Grades K to 5) have in teaching programming. Difficulties with design identified include pupil resistance, a lack of time, a lack of pupil and teacher expertise, conflicting pedagogical choices and a general confusion over what an algorithm is. There were statistically significant differences in selection of the term ‘algorithm’ to describe programming artefacts whether a teacher was a specialist or a generalist, what training they had received on programming or design, the age group taught and programming language used. Teachers were more likely to call a complex code snippet an ‘algorithm’ than a simpler one and more likely to select the term to describe code snippets than a design artefact. We make suggestions of how to alleviate the problems including that teachers are introduced to the idea of ambiguous representations of algorithms and a process which refines the representation from ambiguous to unambiguous as the design progresses.

中文翻译：

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设计难点：K-5 编程中设计教学的挑战

摘要 英国的教师必须确保从 5 岁起就向学生教授算法和程序设计。然而，有证据表明，尽管教师报告说设计很重要，但他们并没有将其转化为课堂实践。本文描述了一项调查研究，其中我们探讨了教师在使用设计方面的困难。我们调查了 207 名教师，向他们询问了关于他们在编程教学中使用设计的自由文本问题以及他们对学生对使用设计的反应的看法。在调查中，我们还调查了教师对术语算法的理解，这是一个基本概念，可能是导致他们在设计上遇到困难的一个因素。我们提供了基础数据，说明 5 至 11 岁（K 至 5 年级）学生的教师在编程教学中使用设计的困难。确定的设计困难包括学生抵抗、缺乏时间、学生和教师缺乏专业知识、教学选择冲突以及对算法是什么的普遍混淆。无论教师是专家还是通才，在选择“算法”一词来描述编程人工制品、他们在编程或设计方面接受过哪些培训、教授的年龄组和使用的编程语言方面，都存在统计学上的显着差异。与简单的相比，教师更有可能将复杂的代码片段称为“算法”，并且更有可能选择术语来描述代码片段而不是设计人工制品。