Computational thinking is becoming an essential skill in educational systems. There is, however, still a great deal to learn about it. This research aims to evaluate whether the inclusion of a specific material (Junior School Bebras Cards) favors the development of primary students' computational thinking skills. For this purpose, 37 fourth-grade…

The relationship between cognitive engagement and learning gains in computer programming has not been well-studied. This study examined the relationship between students' cognitive engagement and learning gains in the context of Python programming. Cognitive engagement, defined by the Interactive, Constructive, Active, Passive (ICAP) framework,…

RoblockLLy is an educational robotics simulator designed for primary and secondary school students, whose goal is to increase their interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In the particular case of computer science, it allows developing computational thinking skills. It has been designed with ease of use in mind. This free…

As computational thinking becomes increasingly essential, the challenge of designing effective teaching approaches to foster students' abilities in this area persists, especially for higher order thinking skills. This study addresses this challenge by proposing and implementing a peer assessment-based Scrum project (PA-SP) learning approach in…

Social learning theory posits that learning is most effective when providing learners with opportunities to observe and interact with peers. Unfortunately, current K-12 programming education overemphasizes individual learning and discourages learners from observing and interacting with others. The Scratch online community provides youth…

As schools endeavor to provide all students with access to computational thinking and computer science, the hackathon emerges as a competitive and high-energy event that uses authentic problems to motivate learners to engage in the domain of computing. This article presents the design case of a hackathon for teenagers as enacted over five…

In this paper, the researchers have tried to solve one of the didactic tasks of an educational institution - the formation of a student's thinking, the development of their algorithmic style of thinking and intelligence. Since an important component of human intellectual development is precisely algorithmic thinking, learning to solve standard…

This study aimed at examining the COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) games having strong potential for helping to enhance intrinsic motivation and computational thinking skills. To this end, STEAM game store was searched with the keywords of "programming, coding, computing, and algorithm". This search yielded 1,249 games. After eliminating…

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…

This study was conducted to determine the effect of Tinkercad use in computer programming education on students ' computational thinking skills and perceptions. In this context, 583 secondary school students studying in Ankara province of Turkey at the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade level in the 2019-2020 academic year constitute the…

This paper reviews the literature relating to the factors that contribute to the difficulties in learning of computer programming. Programming has been a difficult subject to learn and master even at the early stage of education. It has been a global problem and continues to worsen at the local level. Although, there are many education tools…

Educational robotics are commonly present in kindergarten and primary school classrooms, particularly Bee-bot. Its ease of use allows the introduction of computer programming to young children in educational contexts from a science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) perspective. Despite this rise, there are still few…

Computational thinking (CT) has become a skill that is taught starting from an early age with its increasing popularity. In addition, the opinion that CT is related to other 21st century skills finds its place in the literature. The main purpose of this study is to identify the contributions of scaffolding-based game programming activities to…

Computational thinking and creative thinking are valuable tools both within and outside of computer science (CS). The goal of the project discussed here is to increase students' achievement in CS courses through a series of computational creativity exercises (CCEs). In this paper, the framework of CCEs is described, and the results of two separate…

During the last few years, there has been a growing interest in students getting engaged in digital game-making activities so as to enhance their thinking skills. The findings of studies that have examined the impact of such initiatives are quite positive, especially concerning the promotion of 21st century skills; however, many students seem to…