Computational thinking through unplugged activities in early years of Primary Education

Olmo‐Muñoz, Javier del; Gutiérrez, Ramón Cózar; González‐Calero, José Antonio

doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2020.103832

Cited by 177 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Whilst one could question whether unplugged activities are as efficient as the plugged alternatives in terms of learning outcomes, there is an increasing number of studies investigating the question. In particular, del Olmo-Muñoz et al ( 2020 ) showed that “unplugged activities improve computational thinking skills in early Primary Education” and are beneficial when it comes to motivation and gender issues. Indeed, our findings confirm the emerging hypothesis that the success of ER activities in formal education relies on moving the focus away from “the robot” to consider the broader Educational Robotics System (i.e., the tasks, the interface and the robot; Giang et al, 2019 ), to be put in relation with the instruction modality, the learning objectives and the assessment tools and goals (Giang, 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The symbiotic relationship between educational robotics and computer science in formal education

et al. 2021

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Educational Robotics (ER) has the potential to provide significant benefits to education, provided an increase in outreach by transitioning from the extra-curricular initiatives in which ER has thrived to formal education. As Computer Science (CS) Education is undergoing curricular reforms worldwide, the present study addresses the case of a Digital Education reform that included ER as a means to teach core CS concepts. Approximately 350 teachers from the first four grades of primary school participated in a mandatory two-year continuing professional development (CPD) program. The first year of the program was dedicated to CS and introduced teachers to CS Unplugged (CSU) and Robotics Unplugged (RU) activities. As such, we analyse the interplay between these activities and focus on teachers’ voluntary adoption of the proposed content in classrooms. This is complemented by an analysis of their perception and recommendation of ER. The findings highlight three main points. Firstly, ER benefits from the integration in the CS CPD, as this provides the necessary traction to introduce ER into teacher practices (the teachers freely devoted 2275 h to ER activities in their classrooms, over two years). Secondly, the presence of ER activities in the CS-CPD allows a higher proportion of teachers to adopt the CS content, as there are teachers that favour one type of activity over the other. Finally, the globally positive perception of ER registered in this study is relevant for two reasons: teachers were not voluntarily participating in the CPD, and results did not differ between pioneers and novices.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The symbiotic relationship between educational robotics and computer science in formal education

et al. 2021

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“…Practicing visual programming allows the learner to experience skills such as abstraction, decomposition and problem analysis, critical thinking, algorithmic design, evaluation, and generalization (Jacob & Warschauer, 2018;Kafai, 2016). In addition, previous research indicates that engaging in visual programming may promote the computational thinking of elementary school students (Olmo-Muñoz et al, 2020).…”

Section: Visual Programming -Scratch Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Active Learning by Visual Programming: Pedagogical Perspectives of Instructivist and Constructivist Code Teachers and Their Implications on Actual Teaching Strategies and Students’ Programming Artifacts

Shamir‐Inbal

Blau

2021

Journal of Educational Computing Research

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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 technologies, such as visual programming, within the formal curriculum. This study was conducted based on the mixed method research paradigm. First, a folk pedagogy questionnaire was distributed to 89 teachers who integrate differing technologies in their classroom in order to identify the teachers' pedagogical perspectives: constructivist versus instructivist. Then, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 teachers who teach Scratch in order to gain a deeper understanding of their instructivist/constructivist perspectives and actual pedagogical practices and strategies. Finally, we analyzed 96 students' programming artifacts to explore differences, if any, in students' outcomes related to the pedagogical perspectives of their teachers. Findings revealed that pedagogical perspectives are reflected in teaching strategies and assessment practices employed in a visual programming environment. It is promising that teaching visual programming promoted constructivist pedagogy even among instructivist teachers and was consequently reflected in student perspectives and expressed in their programming artifacts. We discuss theoretical and educational implications of these findings.

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“…In the present research, we constructed a CT test with a selection of tasks drawn from the ‘Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge’ (Bebras‐Ireland, 2019). This test can be used to determine to what extent students can apply their CT skills to different types of problems, contexts and situations (Olmo‐Muñoz, Cózar‐Gutiérrez, & González‐Calero, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

STEM learning attitude predicts computational thinking skills among primary school students

Sun

Yang

et al. 2020

Computer Assisted Learning

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Computational thinking (CT) plays a vital role in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). However, whether students' learning attitude towards STEM is related to their CT skills remains unknown. Two studies were conducted to address this knowledge gap. In Study 1, we validated a newly developed STEM learning attitude scale among a sample of Chinese primary school students (N = 489). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis results revealed that the scale which consisted of three factors (mathematics, science and information technology) could sufficiently measure primary school students' STEM learning attitude in the current sample. In Study 2, we explored the association between students' STEM learning attitude and their CT skills. Evidence revealed that learning attitude towards STEM significantly predicted CT skills. We also found that girls had a more positive learning attitude towards STEM than boys, and the fourth grade might be the key period for the development of CT skills. Implications for promoting primary school students' STEM learning and CT skills were also discussed.

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Computational thinking through unplugged activities in early years of Primary Education

Cited by 177 publications

References 17 publications

The symbiotic relationship between educational robotics and computer science in formal education

The symbiotic relationship between educational robotics and computer science in formal education

Active Learning by Visual Programming: Pedagogical Perspectives of Instructivist and Constructivist Code Teachers and Their Implications on Actual Teaching Strategies and Students’ Programming Artifacts

STEM learning attitude predicts computational thinking skills among primary school students

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