In the 1960s, Papert and his team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed Turtle Graphics using the LOGO programming language. Underpinning this development was a profound new philosophy of how learning happens with computers: a microworlds-based approach to learning. The wider aim of this research project is to examine how a microworlds-based approach may be revived in contemporary educational contexts by secondary school teachers in cross-curricular subject areas. It examines the microworld as a tool for secondary level learning at ages eleven-to-fourteen and explores its potential role in making relevant conceptual learning accessible through practical, constructionist approaches in cross-curricular applications.

This particular work-in-progress paper reports on a comparative evaluation of a microworlds-based approach to teaching poetic verse in the subject domain of drama. A quasi-experimental design was used in order to measure performance gains in specific aspects of computational thinking and literacy development following the microworld-based intervention. Preliminary data reveals a higher improvement in performance but further qualitative data needs to be collected in order to provide further insight to support the quantitative findings.