Effect of an OwlSpace Programming Course on the Computational Thinking of Elementary School Students

This study investigates the effect of programming courses on the computational thinking (CT) skills of elementary school students and the learning effectiveness of students from different backgrounds who are studying programming. We designed a OwlSpace programming course into an elementary school cu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Informatics in education Vol. 23; no. 1; pp. 145 - 178
Main Authors: Li, Wei-Ying, Lu, Tzu-Chuen
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Vilnius Vilniaus Universiteto Leidykla 01.01.2024
Vilnius University Press
Institute of Mathematics and Informatics
Vilnius University
Subjects:
Ability
Algorithms
Cognitive Ability
Computational Thinking
Computer Science
Curricula
Curriculum development
Education
Educational Media
Educational Technology
Effectiveness
Electronic Equipment
Elementary Education
Elementary School Curriculum
Elementary school students
Elementary schools
Elementary Secondary Education
Gender
ICT Information and Communications Technologies
Influence of Technology
Information Technology
Instructional Effectiveness
Instructional Materials
Intermediate Grades
Learning
Learning Processes
Long Term Memory
Multimedia Materials
Novices
OwlSpace programming
Pedagogy
Problem solving
Programming
Programming Languages
School education
script-block-based programming language
Self Efficacy
Short Term Memory
Skills
Student Characteristics
Students
Teachers
Young Children
computational thinking
OwlSpace programming
scriptblockbased programming language
ISSN:1648-5831, 2335-8971
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This study investigates the effect of programming courses on the computational thinking (CT) skills of elementary school students and the learning effectiveness of students from different backgrounds who are studying programming. We designed a OwlSpace programming course into an elementary school curriculum. Students in fourth and fifth grades were taught the fundamentals of programming. We measured and analyzed the effectiveness of their CT skills and self-efficacy in CT. The researchers analyzed the changes in the CT of different gender, different grade, and different past experience students in programming courses and then made specific recommendations for information technigy teachers and related units. The results demonstrate that students learned and improved their CT skills by taking OwlSpace programming course. Additionally, gender, grade, and past experience are found to have no impact on the students’ learning that means the course can improve students ability without limited any characteristics.
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ISSN:1648-5831
2335-8971
DOI:10.15388/infedu.2024.07