Throughout a programming course, students develop various source code tasks. Using these tasks to track students' progress can provide clues to the strengths and weaknesses found in each learning topic. This practice allows the teacher to intervene in learning in the first few weeks of class and maximize student gains. However, the biggest…

This short paper presents an educational approach to teaching three popular methods for encoding DNA sequences: one-hot encoding, binary encoding, and integer encoding. Aimed at bioinformatics and computational biology students, our learning intervention focuses on developing practical skills in implementing these essential techniques for…

In this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of cooperative learning on the computational thinking skills and academic performances of middle school students in the computational problem-solving approach. We used the pretest-posttest control group design of the quasiexperimental method. In the research, computational problem-solving…

Computational Thinking (CT) has been formally incorporated into the National Curriculum of Thailand since 2017, where Scratch, a block-based visual programming language, has been widely adopted as CT learning environment for primary-level students. However, conducting hands-on coding activities in a classroom has caused substantial challenges…

At an unrivaled and enduring pace, computing has transformed the world, resulting in demand for a universal fourth foundation beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic: computational thinking (CT). Despite increasingly widespread acceptance of CT as a crucial competency for all, transforming education systems accordingly has proven complex. The…

The integration of visual programming in early formal education has been found to promote computational thinking of students. Teachers' intuitive perspectives about optimal learning processes -- "folk psychology" -- impact their perspectives about teaching "folk pedagogy" and play a significant role in integrating educational…

The aim of this study was to explore how the Coding as Another Language (CAL) curriculum, developed by Boston College's DevTech Research Group and utilizing the ScratchJr app, impacted students' computational thinking, coding skills, and reading comprehension. To accomplish this, the research team randomly assigned thirteen schools in a…

This paper describes an investigation looking at the underlying mathematics of poker machines. The aim of the investigation is for students to get an appreciation of how poker machines are designed to ensure that in the long-term players will inevitably lose when playing. The first part of this paper describes how students can model a simple poker…

Although teachers need to assess computational thinking (CT) for computer science education in K-12, it is not easy for them to evaluate students' programs based on the perspective. The purpose of this study was to investigate students' CT skills reflected in their Scratch programs. The context of the study was a middle school coding club where…

In fact, ever since Seymour Papert (famous in his later years for constructionism, a learning theory that married conceptual constructivism with concrete experience) created Logo programming, many schools have been coding using Logo, the educational computer programming software that has the famous 'turtle' on the computer screen. Importantly,…

Computational thinking (CT) has become a necessary skill of students in the 21st century. Various learning approaches have been developed to foster CT among school students. However, these approaches predominantly rely on computer devices and internet connection and fail to promote advanced computer concepts necessary for programming. Therefore,…

Evaluating the quality of students' programs is necessary for better teaching and learning. Although many innovative learning environments for computer science have been introduced, the scarcity of program evaluation frames and tools is a demanding issue in the teaching practice. This study examined the quality of students' Scratch programs by…

This study highlights the importance of an educational design that includes robotics and programming through a visual programming language as a means to enable students to improve substantially their understanding of the elements of logic and mathematics. Gaining an understanding of computational concepts as well as a high degree of student…

In the last years, a growing trend in different educational contexts focused on Computational Thinking (CT) skills acquisition for both in-service teachers and students. But very low attention has been paid to pre-service teachers' education in regards to CT skills. To solve this issue, an empirical experimentation has been carried out with 141…

Research indicates that understanding levels of abstraction (LOA) and being able to move between the levels is essential to programming success. For K-5 contexts we rename the LOA levels: problem, design, code and running the code. In our qualitative exploratory study, we interviewed five K-5 teachers on their uses of LOA, particularly the design…