Computational Thinking in Education: Where does it fit? A systematic literary review

Computational Thinking (CT) has been described as an essential skill which everyone should learn and can therefore include in their skill set. Seymour Papert is credited as concretising Computational Thinking in 1980 but since Wing popularised the term in 2006 and brought it to the international community's attention, more and more research has been conducted on CT in education. The aim of this systematic literary review is to give educators and education researchers an overview of what work has been carried out in the domain, as well as potential gaps and opportunities that still exist. Overall it was found in this review that, although there is a lot of work currently being done around the world in many different educational contexts, the work relating to CT is still in its infancy. Along with the need to create an agreed-upon definition of CT lots of countries are still in the process of, or have not yet started, introducing CT into curriculums in all levels of education. It was also found that Computer Science/Computing, which could be the most obvious place to teach CT, has yet to become a mainstream subject in some countries, although this is improving. Of encouragement to educators is the wealth of tools and resources being developed to help teach CT as well as more and more work relating to curriculum development. For those teachers looking to incorporate CT into their schools or classes then there are bountiful options which include programming, hands-on exercises and more. The need for more detailed lesson plans and curriculum structure however, is something that could be of benefit to teachers

Promoting Computational Thinking to Impact the Implementation of Computer Science

The researchers drove this action research project to integrate Computer Science into the classroom and the effect it can have on computational thinking. The researcher, a fifth-grade teacher in her third year of teaching, utilized Computer Science activities in a science class of 24 students for two weeks while monitoring their progress through Code.org. The study analyzed the correlation between Computer Science and computational thinking. The findings revealed no correlation between the two variables among students with or without a Computer Science background. This project conducted this research to impact the future classroom practices that may implement Computer Science into the everyday classroom

A Framework for Teaching Computational Thinking in Primary Schools: A Namibian Case Study

Several professional development programs have been designed to train in-service teachers on a computational thinking (CT) curriculum, but few researchers have examined how these affect primary school teachers\u27 self-efficacy and knowledge of CT in emerging economies. This study\u27s objective was to create a framework for the professional development of primary school in-service teachers for the teaching of CT (referred to as professional development for primary computational thinking - PD4PCT) to be integrated into teachers\u27 professional development programs. An initial framework was refined after implementing it at a Namibian school with a group of 14 teachers from five different disciplines (social studies, English, natural science, mathematics, and Afrikaans). Literature reviews, pre- and post-intervention questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and self-reporting diaries were used to collect data. The framework was evaluated by experts via an online questionnaire. The findings show that teachers who participated in the professional development program improved their perceived CT knowledge, beliefs, and confidence to teach CT

How to design activities for learning computational thinking in the context of early primary school in an after-school code club

Abstract. Computational Thinking (CT) and its related concepts have gained a lot of traction within the field of education. Many countries, including Finland and the United Kingdom, are in the process of integrating CT into their national curriculums to equip pupils with much needed 21st century digital skills, including coding (programming). As a result, several programs and activities are being developed to introduce pupils to CT. The need to develop appropriate teaching and learning materials, as well as train teachers to teach, and integrate computational thinking into their lessons is apparent. This thesis seeks to contribute to the body of knowledge on computational thinking by designing and testing instructional materials for early primary school. Computational thinking as a concept, how to integrate its concepts into coding, as well as how pupils understood the concept were explored. This study was conducted in an after-school coding club at an elementary school in the northern part of Finland. The duration for the coding club was 8 weeks. Each lesson lasted for 45 minutes. Participants were selected from among 1st and 2nd grade pupils. In selecting participants for this study, priority was given to pupils with no prior coding experience. 13 out of the selected 17 had no prior experience. The remaining 4 participants were randomly selected from the rest of the applicants who had coding experience. Worksheets and stickers were designed and tested for teaching and learning computational thinking. Lesson plans designed for the coding club included activities for teaching computational thinking using unplugged activities and Scratchjr. The unplugged activities were integrated into coding lessons to enhance the understanding of pupils during the coding lessons. This approach helped to connect theoretical computational thinking to real life practices and its application in the context of coding. Data collected included the unplugged activity worksheets of the participants, their Scratchjr projects, and self-efficacy beliefs regarding their ability to code and think computationally. These work products were evaluated qualitatively for evidence of understanding. The analysis of the self-efficacy beliefs of participants revealed that participants were confident of their computational thinking and coding abilities. The main outcome of this research is the instructional material (stickers, templates, and Scratchjr activities) which was designed for teaching and learning purposes. This unique experiment and pedagogical designs are explained to show how unplugged activities can be used to introduce pupils to computational thinking concepts

Computer Programming Effects in Elementary: Perceptions and Career Aspirations in STEM

The development of elementary-aged students’ STEM and computer science (CS) literacy is critical in this evolving technological landscape, thus, promoting success for college, career, and STEM/CS professional paths. Research has suggested that elementary- aged students need developmentally appropriate STEM integrated opportunities in the classroom; however, little is known about the potential impact of CS programming and how these opportunities engender positive perceptions, foster confidence, and promote perseverance to nurture students’ early career aspirations related to STEM/CS. The main purpose of this mixed-method study was to examine elementary-aged students’ (N = 132) perceptions of STEM, career choices, and effects from pre- to post-test intervention of CS lessons (N = 183) over a three-month period. Findings included positive and significant changes from students’ pre- to post-tests as well as augmented themes from 52 student interviews to represent increased enjoyment of CS lessons, early exposure, and its benefits for learning to future careers

The cognitive effects of computational thinking: A systematic review and meta-analytic study

In this paper, we review and meta-analyze the findings of experimental studies published between 2006 and 2022 that examined the effects of coding and programming interventions on children's core and higher order executive functions (response inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, planning and problem solving). The systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to address three research questions: 1) Which executive functions are most impacted by the teaching of CT? 2) Which instructional modality (educational robotics/virtual coding/unplugged coding) is most effective in enhancing executive function skills in learners aged 4–16 years? and 3) Does the cognitive effectiveness of coding vary with children's age? A total of 19 studies with 1523 participants met the selection criteria for the systematic review. The meta-analysis included 11 of those studies. The results reveal beneficial effects of structured virtual and tangible coding (educational robotics) activities for preschoolers and first graders, and significant effects of more unstructured virtual coding activities (e.g., Scratch-based) for older students. A multivariate fixed-effects model meta-analysis shows that the teaching of coding significantly improves problem-solving with the highest effect (dppc2 = 0.89), but also planning (dppc2 = 0.36), and inhibition and working memory with lower effects (dppc2 = 0.17, dppc2 = 0.20)

Confidence and Common Challenges: The Effects of Teaching Computational Thinking to Students Ages 10-16

This Action Research Project provides data from three different instructors teaching Computational Thinking (CT) to better understand the effects of CT instruction. The researchers focused on identifying problem-solving strategies used by students, what affect teaching CT has on student confidence and ability to problem solve, and what common challenges can be found at different age levels. The study used student pre and post-reflection to measure understanding and comfort with problem-solving. Researchers taught three common lessons of CT including the following concepts: algorithms, loops, conditional statements, and debugging. For data collection, each student was asked to work on a computer game called Human Resource Machine (HRM) while using video and audio to record themselves. Analysis showed a slight decrease in two categories related to working to find a solution to a difficult problem, and the ability to fix small problems that are part of a larger problem. There was a confidence increase in categories related to the ability to do math, the ability to give directions and the ability to someday build a computer. Two of the research sites were able to further break down the data to analyze the differences in the male vs. the female reflections. While CT is often seen as a separate subject, the analysis also showed that reading comprehension has a strong influence on students’ ability to solve CT problems and should be taught in conjunction with CT to ensure students receive the maximum benefit

Characteristics and problems of unplugged computer science curriculum for young children: comparative and practical research based on the curriculum in four countries

With the progress of computer science education in recent years, more and more educators have brought attention to computer science education among young children. Among all these strategies, the unplugged form has been shown to be more effective in teaching. However, recent studies have focused more on the impact of unplugged computer science courses on young children and less on whether these courses are appropriate for the developmental stage of young children. Therefore, this research summarized the curriculum characteristics by comparing different series of unplugged courses for young children from four nations. Then, in a 7-day workshop conducted in China\u27s urban areas, we explored the issues that arise in the implementation of these courses. This research reveals that, although the existing courses cater to a young age range, four issues can still be found, including difficulty, ability difference, too much cooperation, and emphasis on abstraction. Some of these issues may be handled by instructors, while others need consideration of the connection between curriculum design and the physical and cognitive development levels of young children. Furthermore, this research explored the acceptance of unplugged computer science among Chinese young children as well as its impact on their computational thinking level, achieving positive results

Enthusing and inspiring with reusable kinaesthetic activities

We describe the experiences of three University projects that use a style of physical, non-computer based activity to enthuse and teach school students computer science concepts. We show that this kind of activity is effective as an outreach and teaching resource even when reused across different age/ability ranges, in lecture and workshop formats and for delivery by different people. We introduce the concept of a Reusable Outreach Object (ROO) that extends Reusable Learning Objects. and argue for a community effort in developing a repository of such objects

Computational thinking and online learning: A systematic literature review

This paper introduces research concerned with investigating how Computational Thinking and online learning can be successfully married to help empower secondary teachers to teach this subject. To aid this research, a systematic literature review was undertaken to investigate what is currently known in the academic literature on where Computational Thinking and online learning intersect. This paper presents the findings of this systematic literature review. It outlines the methodology used and presents the current data available in the literature on how Computational Thinking is taught online. Using a systematic process eight hundred articles were initially identified and then subsequently narrowed down to forty papers. These papers were analysed to answer the following two questions: 1. What are the current pedagogical approaches to teaching Computational Thinking online? 2. What were the categories of online learning observed in the teaching of Computational Thinking? Our findings show that a wide range of pedagogical approaches are used to teach Computational Thinking online, with the constructivist theory of learning being the most popular. The tools used to teach Computational Thinking were also varied, video game design, playing video games, competitions, and unplugged activities, to name a few. A significant finding was the dependency between the tool used and the definition of the term Computational Thinking. Computational Thinking lacks consensus on a definition, and thus the definition stated in the literature changed depending on the tool. By considering a significant body of research up to the present, our findings contribute to teachers, researchers and policy makers understanding of how computational thinking may be taught online at second level