APPLYING OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS IN LEARNING OF PROGRAMMING

Abstract

The project method has been implemented in the practice of education in general secondary education institutions of Ukraine during the last two decades. During this time, it showed its effectiveness and quite organically fit into the educational process. Accordingly, the process of gradually introducing the project method into the educational process of higher education institutions is quite natural. The application of the project method in the training of future specialists of various specialties makes it possible to strengthen the motivation to study, to more closely connect theory with practice, etc. Probably, in the first place, the project method was applied to the training of future teachers, in particular, computer science teachers, but every year the number of testimonies about the application of this method to the training of specialists of other professions, for example, future doctors, lawyers and others, is increasing. This article is devoted to the description of the experience of applying the project method to the programming training of “Computer Science” specialists. The practical task that students perform when studying object-oriented programming is formulated, and the features of its creation and implementation according to the project method are described. In the approach proposed by the authors, tasks united by a single subject, namely “Development of a graphic editor”, were divided into steps that corresponded to the logic of studying this section of programming and gradually increasing the functionality of the developed graphic editor. That is, in fact, students implemented individual practical-oriented creative projects. The original graphic editors created during the laboratory work were demonstrated during the Informatics Week and evaluated by an independent jury. Most of the presented designs received high scores, while they correlated well with the scores obtained later in the corresponding semester exam. Thus, our experience has shown that the implementation of educational projects contributes to the formation of competencies provided for students who study by the educational and professional program “Computer Science”.