Preliminary findings from the desk research, questionnaires and focus groups show that most of primary level teachers are still not aware of what is tangible programming and how it can be used in their daily practices.
On May 22nd and 23rd, 2018 TangIn (www.tangin.eu) consortium members meet in Sofia, Bulgaria, hosted by Know & Can Association, to discuss the preliminary findings of the desk research activities carried out at partners countries, analysis of teachers’ responses to the questionnaires and participation in focus groups.
Those activities were implemented in several European countries (Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria and Latvia) and the key findings point out that:
- Most of the teachers at primary level are female and 45 years old or more and only around 20% are aged less than 30 years old.
- Computer, smartphone, Skype and email are the “technologies” mostly used by teachers; however, only computers and multimedia projectors - and at a smaller extension the interactive board - are being used in classrooms.
- Teachers at primary level largely agree that logic and algorithms should be introduced at primary school or pre-school education (68%). The same goes for when young children should start to use robots for tangible programming.
- Almost 70% of the teachers at primary level haven’t heard about what tangible programming is.
- When asked about their knowledge on tools supporting programming teaching, almost 60% of the teachers are not familiar with the most known tools (e.g. scratch, logo and others).
More important is that teachers involved in these initial activities of the project are willing to use tangible programming resources into their classes twice a week (11%), once a week (around 30%) or once every two weeks (18%), despite the fact that their majority are not familiar with what is tangible programming and have no experience in teaching programming or using programming and robots to teach other curriculum contents.
Based on the final results of the testing phase the consortium will develop a set of resources for teachers to use in primary school level and that will be pre-tested at the Portuguese School (Agrupamento de Escolas da Murtosa). The resources will include:
- A toolbox of activities based on tangible programming and covering topics related to maths and natural sciences.
- A teachers’ handbook, supporting the utilization of tangible programming concepts and tools in general, and of the TangIn resources in particular.
TangIn project is co-funded by the European Union Erasmus+ program and brings together educational organizations and institutions in a consortium composed of partners from 4 different countries (Portugal, Spain, Latvia and Bulgaria) and is coordinated by the Portuguese company Carreira & Alegre Lda.
If you are interested in participating in the TangIn project or if you would like additional information, you can do so by contacting Pedro Costa at
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Project Nº.: 2017-1-PT01-KA201-035975.