Improving Novice Students’ Computational Thinking Skills by Problem-Solving and Metacognitive Techniques

Abstract

Admittedly, the teaching and learning of programming courses in the computer science and information technology programs have been extremely challenging. Currently, most instructors depend on either the problem-solving technique or the metacognitive technique to help students develop a range of cognitive skills, including metacognitive skills, which are important in the development of a strong computational thinking skill required for 21st-century learning. Studies focusing on the practices of instructors in using both techniques are scarce, thus motivating the researchers to carry out this study. This study was based on a qualitative approach involving a case-study design in which five (5) male and five (5) female instructors were selected from 10 pre-university centers in Malaysia as the respondents and participants in an intervention program. The research instruments used were an interview checklist and intervention guidelines. As anticipated, the findings showed that the activities of each technique could only help students develop certain sub-skills of the computational thinking skill, thus underscoring the need for instructors to integrate both techniques in their teaching practices. Thus, it could be reasoned that using either the metacognitive technique or the problem-solving technique alone would not be sufficient to help students develop strong computational thinking skills, as each technique has its strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, it becomes imperative for instructors to leverage the strengths of both techniques by integrating both of them in the teaching and learning of programming courses.

Student metacognition in online learning using website hyperlink facilities on Microsoft Team’s platform

“…Metacognitive awareness can be enhanced by implementing active learning in the student-centered learning paradigm. Metacognitive awareness consists of five aspects: planning, debugging process, information management strategy, metacognitive monitoring capacity, and evaluation (Sandars & Homer, 2010;Kallio et al, 2018;Ubaidullah et al, 2021;Hota et al, 2022;Jain et al, 2017). The website hyperlinks used in the MS Teams platform have significantly affected the cognitive awareness of the students.…”

The Relationship Between Computational Thinking and Critical Thinking Disposition in Mathematical Problem Solving: Bibliometric Analysis

“…Problem solving is one of the thinking skills that must be mastered by someone to facilitate decision-making (Ubaidullah et al, 2021). However, this ability is not immediately owned by someone, it takes practice, habituation and experience.…”

“…From the explanation of the variables above, a continuous relationship is drawn where mathematics as a branch of knowledge is an important pillar in education as a form of scientific discipline. Problem-solving is an integral part of learning mathematics (Ubaidullah et al, 2021). Where mathematics as a scientific discipline studies complex and universal problems with problem solving as a problem solver in it (Atmaja et al, 2023;Maharani et al, 2019).…”

“…The relationship between problemsolving, critical thinking, and computational thinking is that these three are important analytical thinking skills to be developed in solving problems. Problem-solving is the ability to identify, analyze, and solve problems (Ubaidullah et al, 2021). Critical thinking is the ability to think critically and analyze information objectively (Atmaja et al, 2023).…”

Picture-vocab: Self-made picture dictionary to improve pupils’ vocabulary retention in Malaysia

“…As pupils having difficulties in remembering words for a long term, their working memory is most probably being affected. In order to enhance and build their vocabulary retention, Learners remember better the material that has been presented by means of visual aids [16]. Some words work well with pictures, particularly nouns.…”