The emotional experience of learning programming through Scratch in Angolan technical and vocational education

Abstract

This study investigates the emotional impact of different teaching methodologies in programming education for 10th-grade students at a technical secondary school in Angola. Over two academic years, 221 students were observed. The traditional method, based on pseudocode and flowcharts, was compared with the use of Scratch, a block-based programming language introduced in 2024/25. Data were collected through the Portuguese version of the PANAS scale. Results indicate that Scratch fosters positive emotions and reduces negative ones, supporting the hypothesis that this approach enhances students’ emotional experience and may contribute to improved learning outcomes in programming.