Computational Thinking Equity in Elementary Classrooms: What Third-Grade Students Know and Can Do

Abstract

The Computer Science Teachers Association has asserted that computational thinking equips students with essential critical thinking which allows them to conceptualize, analyze, and solve more complex problems. These skills are applicable to all content area as students learn to use strategies, ideas, and technological practices more effectively as digital natives. This research examined over 200 elementary students' pre-and posttest changes in computational thinking from a 10-week coding program using adapted lessons from code.org's Blockly programming language and CSUnplugged that were delivered as part of the regular school day. Participants benefited from early access to computer science (CS) lessons with increases in computational thinking and applying coding concepts to the real world. Interviews from participants included examples of CS connections to everyday life and interdisciplinary studies at school. Thus, the study highlights the importance of leveraging CS access in diverse elementary classrooms to promote young students' computational thinking; motivation in CS topics; and the learning of essential soft-skills such as collaboration, persistence, abstraction, and creativity to succeed in today's digital world.

Persistence in a Game-Based Learning Environment: The Case of Elementary School Students Learning Computational Thinking

“…To date, however, persistence has only been studied at the macrolevel (e.g., whether students completed or dropped out of an online course). Research points to a need to explore both the macro- and the microperspectives in order to better understand and implement CT in practice (Tran, 2019). In this study, we take a microlevel approach in which we examine persistence in instances throughout the learning process.…”

“…Persistence—that is, the determination of learners to complete a learning process and achieve their learning goals despite obstacles—has proven to be a valuable skill when solving problems (DiCerbo, 2016; Tran, 2019). Yet maintaining persistence is a significant challenge in online learning environments.…”

Revisiting Second Graders’ Robotics with an Understand/Use-Modify-Create (U²MC) Strategy

“…Recently it has begun expanding to other subjects such as the arts, reading, and music. Furthermore, cross-curricular activities to teach computational thinking has become a significant trend in elementary education (Tran, 2018). Ways of teaching and learning computational thinking skills are diverse, ranging from linear progressive strategies where a teacher leads the educative process of teaching computing to project-based, explorative inquiries where a student leads the process of learning computational thinking skills.…”

Pre-service and in-service teachers’ interest, knowledge, and self-confidence in using educational robotics in learning activities

“…Robotics was referred to in many of the studies as an efficient didactical approach or tool to teach basic programming concepts and computational thinking skills (BERLAND; WILENSKY, 2015; GARCIA-PENALVO; MENDES, 2018;LEONARD et al, 2016LEONARD et al, , 2018WITHERSPOON et al, 2017;TRAN, 2019), to develop creativity and problem-solving skills (NOH; LEE, 2020), and to improve students' learning performances (HSIAO, 2019), even in childhood education(BERS et al, 2014; CHALMERS, 2018).Berland and Wilensky (2015) developed a study with 78 eighth-grade students of two different schools in Chicago aimed to analyze the impact of 2-week educational robotics, both physical and virtual robotics, in the teaching of complex systems and computational thinking. The findings reported an improvement in the students' outcomes but with different perspectives.…”