Effect of Reverse Engineering Pedagogy on Primary School Students’ Computational Thinking Skills in STEM Learning Activities

Abstract

Computational thinking (CT) is important for students because it is one of the 21st century’s skills. Reverse engineering pedagogy (REP) can improve students’ CT due to its ability to develop students’ cooperativity, algorithmic thinking, creativity, and problem-solving in discipline education. Thus, this study aimed to explore the effect of REP on primary school students’ CT skills in STEM learning activities. A total of 101 fifth graders in a primary school participated in the study for one semester (16 weeks), including 51 students in the experimental group (EG) with REP, and 50 students in the control group (CG) with the demonstration method (DM). The computational thinking scale (CTS) was used to measure the CT skills of students in the pretest and posttest. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test and the Mann-Whitney U test were used to analyze the data. The results verified that REP had a fine effect on the improvement of students’ CT skills compared to the DM. The findings can provide some ideas for researchers to develop students’ CT skills in STEM learning activities. Teachers can use different teaching methods to reasonably arrange teaching activities to develop primary school students’ CT skills.

Mathematics Algorithms Gaps from Students Perspectives: A Case of Selected Community Secondary Schools

“…Certainly, the textbooks and references shortages were disclosed by the findings implying that students difficulties in referencing the examples, workout procedures, class activities in the printed Open Access: https://ejournal.papanda.org/index.php/edukasiana/ material sources. In the current digital era the knowledge and competences found in Mathematics reference and textbooks are equipped students with systematic and logical methods for solving problems and performing computations (Pereira et al, 2023;Liu et al, 2023). Apparently, based on the findings the suggestion was made to schools and students to be equipped with reference and text books to outlay limitations for accessing knowledge sources from the diverse learning materials support understanding and exploration of mathematical algorithm realism.…”

“…The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) as the current in truck era brought the new ways of performing multi-sectoral activities driven by changes replicated into what Liu et al (2023) stimulated as the advancement of Smart Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Algorithms (STARA). Globally, the deployment of interlinked and integrated human and robotic-technologies are throughout observable in utilization of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, Machine Learning (ML) and big data analytics tools instigated the enthusiastic paradigm shift in sorting various social-economic activities (Keleko, 2022;Chhillar & Aguilera, 2022;Rejeb et al, 2022;Singh et al, 2023;Chalmers, MacKenzie & Carter, 2021;Oosthuizen, 2021).…”

“…Globally, the deployment of interlinked and integrated human and robotic-technologies are throughout observable in utilization of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, Machine Learning (ML) and big data analytics tools instigated the enthusiastic paradigm shift in sorting various social-economic activities (Keleko, 2022;Chhillar & Aguilera, 2022;Rejeb et al, 2022;Singh et al, 2023;Chalmers, MacKenzie & Carter, 2021;Oosthuizen, 2021). Apparently, mathematics algorithms are considerable components for development and deployment of STARA innovations, as are providing systematic and logical methods for problems solving and performing computations (Pereira et al, 2023;Liu et al, 2023).…”