Informatics in Education

Problem-solving and critical thinking are associated with 21st century skills and have gained popularity as computational thinking skills in recent decades. Having such skills has become a must for all ages/grade levels. This study was conducted to examine the effects of grade level, gender, chronotype, and time on computational thinking skills. To this end, the study was designed to follow a longitudinal research model. Participants were 436 secondary school students. Computational thinking test scores were collected from the students at certain time intervals. Results indicate that computational thinking skills are independent of gender, time, and chronotype but differ significantly depending on grade level. The interaction between grade level and time of testing also has a significant impact on computational thinking skills. The difference in grade level can be interpreted as taking an information technologies course increases computational thinking. The results suggest that such courses should be promoted to children at a young age. The joint effect of gender, grade level, and chronotype were not statistically significant and it is recommended to conduct future studies to investigate this result.

The purpose of the study is to examine the moderating effect of age on gender differences in teachers’ self-efficacy for using information and communication technology (ICT) in teaching as well as possible variables underlying this effect. Following Bandura’s conceptualisation of self-efficacy, we defined teachers' self-efficacy as their confidence in performing specific tasks that require the integration of ICT into the teaching practice. The study was conducted via an online questionnaire on a sample of 6613 elementary and upper secondary school teachers in Croatia. The hierarchical multiple regression analysis was applied. The findings indicate minor gender differences in self-efficacy for using ICT that are more prominent among older teachers and practically non-existent among younger teachers. These effects remain statistically significant after controlling for the type of school where the teacher works, perceived technical and professional support for using ICT in school, and frequency of use of computer programmes in teaching. The interaction effect ceases to be statistically significant after the introduction of length of computer use in teaching and/or attitudes towards computers in the model, indicating that these two variables have a role in low self-efficacy for using ICT among older female teachers. A similar level of self-efficacy for using ICT among young male and female teachers is an encouraging finding which could hopefully be followed by gender equality in other aspects of ICT use. The findings suggest that strategies for enhancing ICT self-efficacy should be particularly targeted at older female teachers. This study contributes to a better understanding of the underresearched topic of gender differences in teacher’s ICT self-efficacy.

The review of research works presented in the paper leads to the supposition that scientists abroad usually analyze the components of technical knowledge in relationship with personal traits while in Lithuania no research of this kind has been carried out yet. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that there is a quite insignificant correlation between the results of the test on applied technical knowledge and results of two tests on basic comprehension-knowledge (curriculum and terminology). Essential correlation coefficients of theoretical technical knowledge with the results of the tests on basic comprehension-knowledge (curriculum and terminology) have been established. This leads to maintain that cognitive personality traits make a considerable influence on theoretical technical knowledge while applied technical knowledge is affected only to some extent.