Developing student interest is critical to supporting student learning in computer science. Research indicates that student interest is a key predictor of persistence and achievement. While there is a growing body of work on developing computing identities for diverse students, little research focuses on early exposure to develop multilingual…

As block-based visual programming platform such as Scratch become more accessible and supportive to children's programming learning, the demand on understanding a trajectory of children's computational thinking development through programming from their early ages increases rapidly in recent years. To explore the developmental process of…

Facilitating Computer Science Unplugged (CS-unplugged) activities with reflective thinking activities lead students to in-depth reviews of their decisions and think of ways to solve the CS-unplugged problems. This study aims to evaluate the instruction enriched with reflective thinking activities to develop computational thinking skills. The study…

There is a growing consensus that AI literacy requires a holistic lens, including not only technical knowledge and skills but also social and ethical considerations. Yet, providing holistic AI education for upper-primary students remains challenging due to the abstract and complex nature of AI and a lack of pedagogical experiences in schools.…

The purpose of the current study was to explore the effect of modality (constructionist mBlock, Scratch, and Python interventions) on six-grade students' computational thinking, programming attitude, and achievement. The pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental design was used to explore the research questions. The study group consisted of 105…

Computational thinking is an important skill in computer science since the 1960s, and it is closely related to problem solving. Almost all research related to computational thinking mentions problem solving. Although some research has been conducted on computational thinking, few studies examined the impact of personal traits on students'…

The aim of this study is to compare the effects of unplugged and plugged-in activities on academic achievement and computational thinking (CT) skills of sixth-grade students. Mixed-method research was carried out to explore whether there were differences between the groups, and to learn the students' opinions and experiences regarding the…

Computational thinking (CT) has gained considerable attention and in-depth discussion over the last two decades. Although the significance of CT has been highlighted, it could be challenging for educators to teach CT. Fortunately, adopting robots in education has been evidenced to be of benefit to promoting students' learning motivation, CT, and…

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of Minecraft-based coding activities on computational thinking (CT) of middle school students. In the study, CT was conceptualized so that it encapsulates not only the knowledge of computational concepts (e.g., loops and conditionals) but also the use of CT practices (e.g., testing and debugging).…

Computational Thinking (CT) is regarded as a crucial competency for all children in the 21st century. There are misconceptions about CT which confounds CT skills with programming skills. However, CT skills and programming skills are not the same. CT is a broader skillset of cognitive thinking that is integral to complex problem solving. Teaching…

The purpose of this study is to introduce a developed activity which is named "CityMap" and to present an example of the implementation and evaluation process of a computer science unplugged activity through this activity. The aim of this activity is to write algorithms of going from one place to another using step by step instructions.…

Reintroducing computer science (CS) education in K-12 schools to promote computational thinking (CT) has attracted significant attention among scholars and educators. Among the several essential components included in CS and CT education, program debugging is an indispensable skill. However, debugging teaching has often been overlooked in K-12…

Robotics is needed as education keeps up with challenges students are facing in a technological environment. A long-term research project focuses on developing a feasible robotics-based learning environment that enables primary school teachers to introduce computer science education. This paper shows educational robotics combining storytelling to…

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…

While increasing emphasis has been placed on computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT) little is known about these topics in elementary classrooms. Significant equity gaps exist within CS/CT at the elementary level, with a major contributor being the lack of highly qualified CS/CT elementary teachers. Professional development (PD) for…