Teaching programming and mathematics in practice: A case study from a Swedish primary school

Programming and computational thinking have emerged as compulsory skills in elementary school education. In 2018, Sweden has integrated programming in mathematics education with the rationale that it fosters problem solving and logical thinking skills and motivates students to learn mathematics. We investigated how teachers introduce programming in mathematics education in a Swedish primary school using an explorative case study. We followed four mathematics teachers during the first semester in which programming was mandatory. They taught second-, sixth- and ninth-grade students. Our contributions are threefold: we provide an account of how programming is taught in mathematics education; we discuss how teachers reflect on the challenge of teaching programming in mathematics; and we report on students' understanding of programming and their view on the relationship between programming and mathematics.