Background: Conventional reflective learning methodologies in programming education often lack structured guidance and individualised feedback, limiting their pedagogical effectiveness. Whilst computational thinking (CT) offers a systematic problem-solving framework with decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithm design, its…

Background: Studies on the effectiveness of block-based environments continue to produce inconsistent results. A strong reason for this is that most studies compare environments that are not equivalent to each other or to the level of learners. Moreover, studies that present evidence of the effectiveness of block-based environments by comparing…

Background: The idea of computational thinking is underpinned by the belief that anyone can learn and use the underlying concepts of computer science to solve everyday problems. However, most studies on the topic have investigated the development of computational thinking through programming activities, which are cognitively demanding. There is a…

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…