This study examined the effects of embodied learning experiences on students' understanding of computational thinking (CT) concepts and their ability to solve CT problems. In a mixed-reality learning environment, students mapped CT concepts, such as sequencing and loops, onto their bodily movements. These movements were later applied to robot…

This study strived to determine the effectiveness of integrative teaching of reading strategies and working memory on basic math and problem-solving skills. It is a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study carried out on 50 second-graders from Chahashk Shandiz village in the academic year of 2020-2021 who were randomly selected by cluster…

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,…

Elementary school students struggle in interpreting the equal sign as a symbol denoting equivalence. Although many have advocated using a pan-balance scale to help students develop this understanding, less is known about what features associated with this model support learning. To attempt to control and examine these features, the investigators…

Solving arithmetic word problems has been a challenge for primary students due to difficulties in understanding the problem structure and relating the quantities in the problem to each other. This paper reports on an action research study to enhance students' subtraction word problem-solving skills. The authors observed that their students had…

The purpose of this research study was to examine the effectiveness of culturally appropriate problem-solving instruction (CAPSI) incorporating elements from schema instruction, video modeling, and vocabulary instruction. Culturally relevant information and the students' native language were explicitly incorporated into math problem-solving…

Background: The need to focus more on children's abilities to change requires new assessment technologies in education. Process-oriented assessment can be useful in this regard. Dynamic testing has the potential to provide in-depth information about children's learning processes and cognitive abilities. Aim: This study implemented a…

This investigation examines the impact of two psychoeducational programs (i.e., computer-assisted versus pencil-and-paper) for the empowerment of visuospatial skills of 7-year-old pupils. At pretest, posttest and at a three-month follow-up, 58 children attending the second grade of Italian primary school completed a battery of tests assessing…

Prior work demonstrates the importance of introducing young children to programming and engineering content before gender stereotypes are fully developed and ingrained in later years. However, very little research on gender and early childhood technology interventions exist. This pilot study looks at N = 45 children in kindergarten through second…

This study aimed to combine the use of electronic technology and dynamic testing to overcome the limitations of conventional static testing, and adapt more closely to children's individual needs. We investigated the effects of a newly developed computerized series completion test using a dynamic testing approach and its relation to school…

The present study investigated the usefulness of a pre-programmed, teleoperated, socially assistive peer robot in dynamic testing of complex problem solving utilising the Tower of Hanoi. The robot, in a 'Wizard of Oz' setting, provided instructions and prompts during dynamic testing to children when they had to solve 3 D Tower of Hanoi puzzles.…

This paper presents findings from a two-year qualitative study examining integration of computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT) into elementary mathematics instruction. Integrated units were developed by elementary teachers and CS/CT coaches with support from university faculty with expertise in CS/CT and elementary mathematics.…

Computational thinking can provide a basis for problem solving, for making evidence-based decisions, and for learning to code or create programs. Therefore, it is critical that all students across the K-12 continuum--including students in the early grades--have opportunities to begin developing problem solving and computational thinking skills.…

Picture this: a PhD chemist, PhD science educator, and a preservice Latina elementary educator walk into an aftercare program for primary and intermediate students from a rural school. These students are identified as low income and at risk and therefore eligible to participate in this school-provided aftercare. While across the state, these same…

This study examined what factors might have a positive impact on students' learning outcomes in mathematical understanding and computational thinking skills. Specifically, whether the proposed instructional design combining computational perspectives and an embodied approach in mathematics learning improves (a) mathematics learning, (b)…