Effects of Scratch-based activities on 4th-grade students’ computational thinking skills

Abstract

Computational Thinking (CT) has emerged in recent years as a thematic trend in education in many countries. initiatives have been developed for its inclusion in school curricula. There are many pedagogical strategies to promote the development of elementary school students’ CT skills and knowledge. Unplugged learning tasks, block-based programming projects, and educational robotics are 3 of the most used strategies. This paper aimed to analyze the effect of Scratch-based activities, developed during one scholar year, on the computational thinking skills developed and concepts achieved by 4th-grade students. The study involved 189 students from two school clusters organized into an experimental group and a control group. To assess students’ computational knowledge, the Beginners Computational Thinking Test developed by Several Zapata-Cáceres et al. (2020) was used. The results indicate statistically significant differences between the groups, in which students in the experimental group (who performed activities with scratch) scored higher on the test than students in the control group (who did not use Scratch).

The effect of block-based programming activities on the computational thinking skills of pre-service primary school teachers

“…The usage of block-based programming activities had a positive effect on the pre-service teachers' results. Activities involving problem-solving or creation of projects like simple games or animations have an evident effect on the level of the computational thinking skills not only promote the development of computational thinking skills but also contribute to the application of knowledge from other curricular areas (Piedade & Dorotea, 2023).…”

“…There are always 4 possible answers, but only one of them is correct. It should be noted that the BCTt does not assess competencies, but rather allows us to measure the students' knowledge and skills regarding concepts associated with Computational thinking (Piedade & Dorotea, 2023). We'll refer to them as computational thinking skills in this paper.…”

Toward improving student motivation and performance in introductory programming learning by Scratch: The role of achievement emotions

“…Scratch is a visual, block-based programming language used by novices to learn computer-related concepts; it also provides an interactive media-rich, user-friendly environment for users to develop their projects collaboratively in the form of animations, games, and stories. 3 , 13 , 23 , 25 The lessons, including lectures and practice, were delivered in a computer classroom.…”

“…4,8,24 The advantages of Scratch for programming novices are evidential. Many researchers have identified positive results in learning, including programming knowledge and achievement, 8,23,25 computational thinking skills, 23,25 a positive attitude toward programming, 4,6,13,23 and learning motivation. 8 Scherer et al 22 meta-analyzed previous studies and found that interventions focusing on visualization through Scratch are especially effective because visual programming languages may reduce the cognitive load associated with reading, understanding, and creating code.…”

Mirror, Mirror, on The Wall, How Do We Measure What Our Students do in Scratch Programming?

“…Aside from its entertainment value, Scratch is a powerful tool for developing problem-solving and criticalthinking skills. It has been proven to enhance comprehension in various subjects (Kalelioglu & Gulbahar, 2014;Piedade & Dorotea, 2022). Educational institutions, from primary schools to universities and after-school programs, have embraced Scratch as a way to introduce students to the exciting world of coding.…”