Informatics in Education

This study investigates the effect of programming courses on the computational thinking (CT) skills of elementary school students and the learning effectiveness of students from different backgrounds who are studying programming. We designed a OwlSpace programming course into an elementary school curriculum. Students in fourth and fifth grades were taught the fundamentals of programming. We measured and analyzed the effectiveness of their CT skills and self-efficacy in CT. The researchers analyzed the changes in the CT of different gender, different grade, and different past experience students in programming courses and then made specific recommendations for information technigy teachers and related units. The results demonstrate that students learned and improved their CT skills by taking OwlSpace programming course. Additionally, gender, grade, and past experience are found to have no impact on the students’ learning that means the course can improve students ability without limited any characteristics.

The creative programming language Processing can be used as a generative architectural design tool, which allows the designer to write design instructions (algorithms) and compute them, obtaining graphical outputs of great interest. This contribution addresses the inclusion of this language in the architecture curriculum, within the context of digital culture and alternative approaches to how digital tools are used and learned. It studies the different processes related to Computational Thinking that are triggered in the prototyping of computer applications and that lead to creativity. The similarity between architectural design and programming is analysed, both in problem solving (abstraction, decomposition, iterative revisions -debugging-, etc.) and in the use of mechanisms of a digital nature (loops, randomness, etc.). The results of the design and testing of a pilot course are shown, in which the way of teaching, learning and using this programming language is based on the graphical representation of problems through sketches.

Computing science which focuses on computational thinking, has been a compulsory subject in the Thai science curriculum since 2018. This study is an initial program to explore how and to what extend computing science that focused on STEM education learning approach can develop pre-service teachers' computational thinking. The online STEM-based activity-Computing Science Teacher Training (CSTT) Program was developed into a two-day course. The computational thinking test (CTT) data indicated pre-service teachers’ fundamental skills of computational thinking: decomposition, algorithms, pattern recognition, pattern generalization and abstractions. The post-test mean score was higher than the pre-test mean score from 9.27 to 10.9 or 13.58 percentage change. The content analysis indicated that there were five key characteristics founded in the online training program comprised: (1) technical support such as online meeting program, equipment, trainer ICT skills (2) learning management system such as Google Classroom, creating classroom section in code.org (3) the link among policy, curriculum and implementation (4) pre-service teachers' participation and (5) rigor and relevance of how to integrate the applications of computing science into the classroom.

The Computational Thinking (CT) teaching approach allows students to practice problem-solving in a way that they can use the Computer Science mindset. In this sense, Collaborative Learning has a lot to contribute to educational activities involving the CT. This article presents the design and evaluation of a Collaborative Learning framework for the development of CT skills in students. To design the proposed strategy, several fundamental features of the Collaborative Learning concept of the literature have been studied and sketched. The strategy was applied to middle school students through a digital games programming workshop. Data were collected by three means: (1) collecting artifacts produced during activities; (2) recording of game programming sessions; and (3) applying a structured interview to students. The data analysis showed evidence that the strategy was able to mobilize Computational Thinking skills in addition to mobilizing collaborative skills in learners.

Nowadays, solving problems is substantial for the social relationship human. Computational Thinking (CT) emerges as an interdisciplinary thought process encompassing mental abilities to help students solve and understand problems. Researchers invest in the methodological proposal of activities aimed at CT stimulation, educational approaches, and the conception of technologies that support these activities’ execution. Educational Robotics (ER) is one of these technologies that stand out at different educational levels to favor teamwork, logical thinking, and creativity, skills intimately articulated with the computing paradigm. The main objective of this work is to investigate the impact of ER activities on CT development and subjects learning in the Technical and Vocational Education in High School. For this, we accomplished a study of intervention research type with students and teachers analyzing quantitative and qualitative aspects. The results indicate that the introduction of ER can favor students in the development of CT skills and learning High School subjects.