2020 Volume 44 Issue 2 Pages 265-275
The purpose of this study to explore teachers’ expectations and Commitment towards educational practice of programming education in elementary school in Japan. An online survey was carried out among 633 elementary and junior high school teachers in Japan. We found that 33％ of elementary school teachers wanted an opportunity to teach programming. Among those who did not show a willingness for the same, one half mentioned lack of familiarity with programming as the primary reason and lack of time due to involvement in other jobs as the secondary reason for not favoring programming education. About 30 ％ of teachers had computer anxiety, and 50％ of the teachers were not competent in the use of computers. A path analysis of the aforementioned data revealed that (a) high programming skills influenced a positive attitude toward a cooperative human-AI society, raising expectations for the effect of programming education and raising the willingness to participate in it; and (b) among elementary school teachers, there was a lack of willingness toward participation in programming education owing to poor programming skills, because of computer anxiety and a fixed mindset.
