Which way of design programming activities is more effective to promote K‐12 students' computational thinking skills? A meta‐analysis

Abstract

Promoting the cultivation of computational thinking (CT) skills in programming activities has become a key issue in the K‐12 curriculum, however, there is no unified conclusion on how to design programming activities to promote the acquisition of CT skills more effectively. The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of using programming to enhance K‐12 students' CT skills and explore the influence of various programming instructional design factors on the acquisition of CT skills. This study presents a quantitative meta‐analysis. A systematic search of randomized controlled studies on the influence of programming on CT skills. A total of 86 empirical studies with 114 effect sizes met the study selection criterion. The results showed that programming improved K‐12 students' CT skills in general (Hedges' g = 0.601, 95% CI [0.505, 0.697], p < 0.001). No publication bias was detected. Besides, we found that the interdisciplinary integration of programming, the duration of programming intervention within 1 week to 1 month, the class size of less than 50 students, and a reasonable selection of programming instruments and CT assessment types may be more conducive to promoting students' CT skills. Based on these findings, we suggest that programming instructional design should be planned reasonably to make the best use of technology towards developing students' CT skills. This will be of great significance to programming teaching and CT education in K‐12.

Computational thinking in mathematics education: A systematic review

“…Meanwhile, BootUp's coding (Rich et al, 2021), hour of code (Quiterio Figueiredo, 2017), EasyLogic 3D (Rios Felix et al, 2020, intensive coding (Ozmutlu et al, 2021), computational thinking test (CTt) for beginners (BCTt) and TechCheck (Relkin et al, 2021), basic coding (Critten et al, 2021;Piedade et al, 2020), ACME 'Code Animation by Evolved Metaphors' (Mecca et al, 2021) and block programming activities (Silva et al, 2021) were used in developing CT skills. Furthermore, visual basics and pencil code (Deng et al, 2020), unplugged programming activities (Sun et al, 2021a(Sun et al, , 2021b and visual programming environments (Yi Wu & Yu Sheng, 2021) have all demonstrated to be helpful in improving CT skills in two ASEAN nations.…”

“…CT is described by Wing (2006) as 'the mental processes involving framing problems including their solutions expressed in a way that an information-processing agent may successfully carry out'. There were many studies undertaken to eliminate the gap in CT (Sun et al, 2021b). As a consequence, many academics emphasise the need of including CT in the curriculum in regard to a 21st-century literacy at various education levels, starting from kindergarten to university (Abdullah et al, 2019;Jaipal-Jamani & Angeli, 2017;Nouri et al, 2020;Pei et al, 2018;Tasso et al, 2019).…”

“…It is an essential ability, comparable to reading, writing and calculating (Liu et al, 2022). Furthermore, although there were a lot of data supporting the efficacy of programming in improving students' CT in mathematics education, the study in regards to the relationship between effectiveness and programming instructional design components was not very imposing (Sun et al, 2021b). To achieve more successful programming in mathematics education, Lye and Koh (2014) advocated for additional research into programming classroom design aspects.…”

Single or Combined? A Study on Programming to Promote Junior High School Students’ Computational Thinking Skills

“…In the international context, there are two main methods for cultivating students' CT skills in programming classrooms: plugged-in and unplugged (Del Olmo-Muñoz et al, 2020;Sun et al, 2021b). Among them, plugged-in programming has been widely promoted and applied in K-12, and its effect has also been supported by sufficient evidence.…”

A Cross-Sectional Study Investigating Primary School Children’s Coding Practices and Computational Thinking Using ScratchJr

“…The emphasis on CT has been spurred by seminal calls such as the ones put forth by Seymour Papert and Jeannette Wing, who highlighted the potential of CT to support analytical thinking, creativity and the development of critical thinking skills. Recently, there has been an increased emphasis on CT around the world, including discussions about integrating programming and CT in primary education curricula (Kong & Wang, 2021;Sun et al, 2021). At the same time, numerous technological products (e.g., software and robotic kits) have emerged aiming at supporting children to learn how to code (Jung & Won, 2018;Papadakis, 2020;Sullivan & Heffernan, 2016;Yu & Roque, 2019), and for developing the CT competencies needed in an ever-increasing technological world.…”