Background: The world is moving towards digitalization and intelligence. Programming has become an essential development competency. Even though many countries are currently making great efforts to expand programming education, the programming education in these countries shows an imbalance in geographical and gender dimensions. We found that few…

While numerous studies have highlighted the potential benefits of programming environment (PE) use for children's learning, the boundary conditions of children's PE acceptance within the programming education context are less clear. This study fills this gap in the literature by investigating the critical determinants of children's PE use…

Background: Collaborative programming is important and challenging for K12 students. Scaffolding is a vital method to support students' collaborative programming learning. However, conventional scaffolding that does not fade may lead students to become overly dependent, resulting in unsatisfactory programming performance. Objectives: This study…

Pair programming is an effective instructional format in programming education for adolescents. Within pair programming, three potential gender combinations may arise: Boy-Boy (BB), Girl-Girl (GG), and Boy-Girl (BG). This study explores the impact of different gender pairings on the programming self-efficacy and collaborative attitudes of…

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…

The participatory view of learning emphasises students' identity construction. However, identity research in the context of programming education to cultivate students' computational thinking is scarce. In this study, an instrument of computational identity with components of engagement, imagination and affiliation, was developed and validated.…

Background and Context: Students' self-efficacy toward computing affect their participation in related tasks and courses. Self-efficacy is likely influenced by students' initial experiences and exposure to computer science (CS) activities. Moreover, student interest in a subject likely informs their ability to effectively regulate their learning…

In this study, an interactive programming learning environment was built with two types of error prompt functions: 1) the key prompt and 2) step-by-step prompt. A quasi-experimental study was conducted for five weeks, in which 75 sixth grade students from disadvantaged learning environments in Taipei, Taiwan, were divided into three groups: 1) the…

Despite increased interest in integrating programming education into K-12 programs, there is a lack of studies on teaching debugging to younger age groups. Therefore, this study proposes practical design components for designing unplugged debugging tasks that affect young learners' debugging performance, problem-solving, and self-efficacy,…

This study was carried out to determine the effect of Scratch-based coding applications integrated into the 5E learning model used in science teaching on students' computational thinking skills and self-efficacy towards block-based programming. In addition, students' perceptions of the activity were measured after each Scratch activity, which was…

Background and Context: A continued gender disparity has driven a need for effective interventions for recruiting girls to computer science. Prior research has demonstrated that middle school girls hold beliefs and attitudes that keep them from learning computer science, which can be mitigated through classroom design. Objective: This study…

This study investigates the development of algorithmic thinking as a part of computational thinking skills and self-efficacy of primary school pupils using programmable robots in different instruction variants. Computational thinking is defined in the context of twenty-first century skills and describes processes involved in (re)formulating a…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being deeply integrated into human society. In the future, human collaboration with AI is inevitable. Therefore, exploring the attitudes of future workers--represented by current K-12 children--towards AI has become crucial. Robots stand as typical representatives of AI. Robot programming education is an important…

This paper investigated the effect of block-based programming and unplugged coding teaching activities on fifth graders' computational thinking skills, self-efficacy, and academic performance. The teaching activities were conducted within the scope of the "Problem-Solving and Programming" unit of the Information Technologies and Software…

Using robotics and programming, this study investigated the effects of different levels of embodied instruction on the problem-solving, debugging, programming proficiency, self-determination, and self-efficacy of students in ethnically diverse elementary classrooms. The first small-scale, quasi-experimental study involved 37 second-graders, who…