Background: Teaching programming and computational thinking is becoming a major issue in many education systems. Numerous approaches are possible, but very few studies compare these different ways of implementing programming and computational thinking learning. Objectives: We compared three ways of teaching programming and computational thinking…

Area measurement is a foundational component across STEM fields. The area formula offers limited insight for children trying to develop their area measurement reasoning skills, particularly when dealing with composite shapes. Spatial structuring, where children explore structural units of a 2D space, is an alternative approach. However, poor…

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…

Background and Context: Historically, women have been underrepresented in computer science. To address this gender gap, researchers advocate for high-quality computer science programs for early childhood. Objectives: This study examines gender differences in coding performance before and after implementing a 24-lesson visual programming curriculum…

The push to teach coding in schools continues to gain momentum. Coding helps students develop skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity, as well as improve overall academic performance. However, students with disabilities often face challenges in areas such as problem-solving, mathematics, and multistep reasoning when learning…

With the advancement in technology and the emphasis on computer science education, there has been a strong push for more widespread programming instruction at K-12 and higher education levels. Existing research has mostly focused on students at the secondary and post-secondary levels. Not much research has involved students at the elementary…

The study aims to compare the effect of a structured versus an unstructured educational robotics (ER) curriculum on (a) the frequency and type of programming errors made by students in block-based programming, (b) their ability to debug a programme, and (c) their engagement in the learning process. The authors' hypothesis is that, in programming…

Computational thinking (CT) has attracted significant interest among many educators around the globe. Despite this growing interest, research on CT and programming education in elementary school remains at an initial stage. Many relevant studies have adopted only one type of method to assess students' CT, which may lead to an incomplete view of…

The GeomBot is a drawing robot that combines the well-known strengths and opportunities offered by Scratch with those of Papert's original robotic drawing-turtle. In this study we look at the GeomBot as a physical programmable artifact around which action research with a group of teachers and a researcher was carried out with the aim of designing,…

In an increasingly digital world, the elementary school students of today who learn to program will be positioned to re-imagine and build the future. As educators, it is essential to consider how such an important skill is made accessible for a diverse range of students, including those diagnosed with learning disabilities. In this article, the…

In an ever-increasing technological society, teachers have now, more than ever, a vast offering of educational technologies made available for classroom use. However, the time necessary for vetting and developing rigorous lessons with the usage of such technologies can be overwhelming for a classroom teacher. Still, teachers need the opportunity…

Digital competence and programming are actively highlighted areas in education worldwide. They are becoming part of curricula all over the world, including the Swedish elementary school curriculum, Children are expected to develop "computational thinking" through programming activities, mainly in mathematics--which are supposed to be…

Scratch is a tool for initial learning of programming, but also for creating educational and entertainment content, making mathematical and scientific projects, simulating and visualizing experiments. This paper examines the effectiveness of Scratch's application in mathematics, in the study of basic geometric shapes. The analysis has shown that…

This paper highlights the year-one (pilot) findings of a three-year project on emerging technologies where students engaged in computer modeling, 3D printing, flight simulation, and drones during summer camps and afterschool programs in rural and urban districts. The pilot was iterative as different interventions were field-tested in specific…

This article presents a quasi-experiment which, with the use of Arduino and Scratch for Arduino (S4A), attempts to study their effect on self-efficacy and motivation towards Science Education, Computational Thinking (CT) and the views of 5th Grade students about concepts of electricity. It was conducted on the 5th Grade of a Primary School in…