This study investigated the effects of 3D model building activities with block codes on students' spatial thinking and computational thinking skills. The study group consists of 5th grade students in a secondary school in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. For the study, a pretestposttest control group was utilized within the experimental…

The use of a pedagogical approach mediated transfer with the bridging method has been successful in facilitating the transitions from block-based to text-based programming languages. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research addressing the impact of this transfer on programming misconceptions during the transition. The way programming concepts are…

Background and context: Coding and computational thinking are often taught through integrated curricula, despite a paucity of classroom-based research on their effectiveness. Objective: To investigate evidence of learning resulting from cross-curricular coding tasks in middle-school classrooms, and the school environment factors that impact upon…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the 8th graders interpreted the equal sign in the pan balance activities they created on Scratch. Five eighth graders (4 girls and 1 boy) in Turkey participated in this study. Case study was employed as a qualitative research method. Data was gathered through the Scratch files created by the…

The transition from elementary to secondary school presents challenges for students, including the shift from a streamed to a destreamed mathematics curriculum. This paper explores the Ontario context, where all students began taking the same grade 9 mathematics course in 2021-2022. The Grade 9 Mathematics Research Project investigated current…

Students from underrepresented populations--females, working class, and youth from marginalized racial/ethnic groups--are less likely than their middle-class Asian and White male peers to study computer science (CS) in college. The dearth of CS undergraduates from these groups contributes to projected labor force shortages. Sources of the dilemma…

STEM integration holds significant promise for supporting students in making connections among ideas and ways of thinking that might otherwise remain "siloed." Nevertheless, activities that integrate disciplines can present challenges to learners. In particular, they can require students to shift epistemological framing, demands that can…

Research around problem solving in collaborative groups has made progress, but several conceptual and methodological issues remain. These issues include the appropriate choices of units of analysis; the ability of current theoretical sets of macrocognition codes to capture group dynamics; detection and identification of potentially emergent…

This exploratory study attempts to determine problem solving steps in block based programming environments. The study was carried out throughout one term within Code.org. Participants were 15 6th grade secondary school students enrolled in an IT course at a public secondary school. Observations, screenshots and interviews were analyzed together to…

Computational thinking--a set of mental and cognitive tools applied to problem solving--is a fundamental skill that all of us (and not just computer scientists) draw on. Educators have found that computational thinking enhances learning across a range of subjects and reinforces students' abilities in reading, writing, and arithmetic. This book…

In recent years, mathematics classrooms in the U.S. and around the world have seen an increasing integration of educational robotics with interest from both students and teachers. Through their robotics coding activities, students in the present study discovered the concepts of special angle pairs in geometry--namely, complementary and…

The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of unplugged coding activities carried out with middle school students on their computational thinking skills. This study employed nested-mixed design, which is a mixed research method; the data were supported by including the qualitative phase into an experimental study. In this frame, a group of…

Research has supported the benefit of cognitive vocabulary learning approaches, such as dual-coding (i.e. visual-verbal approach), on Chinese language learners' vocabulary attainment. However, few studies have systematically examined how to maximize Chinese word retention. Therefore, the goal of this study was to investigate the effects of two…

An important component of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM), used by the majority of states in the U.S., has the eight standards for mathematical practice (SMPs). While surveys have investigated teachers' perceptions of the CCSSM few have investigated middle school mathematics teachers' (MSMTs') (grades 6-8) perceptions of…

The purpose of the current study is to design and develop an Arduino-assisted robotic and coding activity in compliance with the 5E learning model for middle school students to construct knowledge and realize learning in science teaching. The study was conducted on 6th grade students attending a private middle school in Turkey in the second term…