Debugging in a World Full of Bugs : Designing an educational game to teach debugging and error detection with the help of a teachable agent

Abstract: This study used the Magical Garden software and earlier research into computational thinking as a point of departure to explore what metaphors could be used and how a teachable agent could be utilised to introduce debugging and error detection to preschool children between four and six years old. A research through design methodology allowed the researcher to iteratively work divergently and convergently through sketching, creating a Pugh matrix, conducting six formative interviews, and finally creating two hybrid-concepts as paths to teaching debugging in the form of concepts. Many metaphors discovered in the design process and in preschool teachers' daily practices were judged possible for teaching debugging and error detection. The analysis of these resulted in four recommendations for choosing a suitable metaphor when teaching debugging: it should have clear rights and wrongs, it should allow for variation, it should have an easily understandable sequentiality to it, and it should be appropriate for the age-group. Furthermore, six recommendations were formulated for utilising a teachable agent: have explicitly stated learning goals, review them and explore new ones as you go, have a diverse design space exploration, make the learning objective task complex, not the game in general, reflect on if using a TA is the best solution, make use of the correct terminology, and keep the graphical elements simple. These recommendations, together with the hybrid-concepts created, provide researchers and teachers with knowledge of how to choose appropriate metaphors and utilise teachable agents when aiming to teach debugging and error detection to children between four and six years old.