The emphasis on programming and robotics owing to the unfolding of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on the African continent has led the South African National Department of Education to propose a new subject in Grades R to 9. Hence, the training and development of pre-service teachers is crucial so that they can respond to the skills needed in the Digital Age. This preliminary study set out to explore and gauge pre-service teachers’ experiences of programming and robotics. Programming is perceived as being difficult and challenging because of its abstract nature. Block-based programming has gained popularity in introducing the novice to programming concepts. This paper presents a case of nine computer science pre-service teachers from a South African university and their experiences of physical computer programming using Scratch for Arduino. Data was collected from unstructured observations during a practical session followed by a semi-structured group interview. The meaningful implementation of physical computing was supported by Rogers’s (Freedom to learn: A view of what education might become, Charles Merrill, 1969) experiential learning theory. A prominent finding was that physical programming affords the opportunity to learn electronics and programming simultaneously, making programming relevant and interesting. Programming with Scratch for Arduino takes advantage of the fact that an Arduino is a physical device when paired with Scratch, further making these concepts accessible in a concrete manner.

由于第四次工业革命在非洲大陆展开，对编程和机器人技术的重视促使南非国家教育部在 R 至 9 年级提出了一个新科目。 因此，职前教师的培训和发展至关重要，这样他们才能应对数字时代所需的技能。这项初步研究旨在探索和衡量职前教师在编程和机器人技术方面的经验。由于其抽象性质，编程被认为是困难和具有挑战性的。在向新手介绍编程概念时，基于块的编程已经很受欢迎。本文介绍了来自南非大学的 9 名计算机科学职前教师的案例以及他们使用 Scratch for Arduino 进行物理计算机编程的经验。在实践会议期间从非结构化观察中收集数据，然后进行半结构化小组访谈。物理计算的有意义的实现得到了 Rogers (学习自由：教育可能变成什么样的观点，查尔斯·梅里尔，1969 年）体验式学习理论。一个突出的发现是物理编程提供了同时学习电子和编程的机会，使编程变得相关且有趣。使用 Scratch for Arduino 编程利用了一个事实，即 Arduino 与 Scratch 配对时是一个物理设备，进一步使这些概念以具体的方式可用。