THE RELEVANCE OF THE JAVA PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE, THE ROLE OF GAMIFICATION AND EDUCATIONAL PLATFORMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Abstract

In the process of studying programming, most students face difficulties in understanding the materials. This issue requires the introduction of new approaches to training future computer science teachers. At the same time, it is essential to identify a programming language for the university-level study while training teachers of computer science, which both will be in demand in the labor market, widely used in software development across various fields and will be easy to master when learning basic programming paradigms. The article discusses the features and challenges of studying programming, conducts an analysis based on the questionnaire responses, as well as the review of the literature of foreign and domestic authors. The analysis touches upon the issues related to the suitability of using the Java programming language for university-level study during the preparation computer science teachers, the integration of an online platform into the educational process, as well as the use of gamification as a teaching method.  The survey involved 149 4th-year students enrolled in the educational program of teacher training in computer science: 45 of them study at the University named after Zh.A. Tashenev, 69 students at the South Kazakhstan Pedagogical University named after O. Zhanibekov, 35 students at the Central Asian Innovation University. The results of the study revealed the relevance and demand of the Java programming language, as well as the need to integrate an online platform with gamification elements into the educational process at the university. This work will assist universities in developing an educational program for training teachers in informatics, as well as teachers in developing methods for teaching programming languages.