Engaging Estonian primary school children in computational thinking through adaptive educational games: A qualitative study

Author(s):  
Liina Malva ◽  
Danial Hooshyar ◽  
Yeongwook Yang ◽  
Margus Pedaste
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Suéllen Rodolfo Martinelli ◽  
Luciana Martinez Zaina ◽  
Tiemi Christine Sakata

INTRODUCTION: There is no consensus of what skills can be developed from the learning of Computation Thinking (CT). However, teachers and researchers agreed that by the learning of CT individuals can acquire and expand many abilities. Courses have been carried out in Brazil and in other countries with the aim of motivating teachers on adding CT to classroom practices. OBJECTIVE: This article to present a case study that investigated the feasibility of introducing activities of CT for primary school children. Such activities were created and mediated by the teachers of Primary School. METHOD: First, a continuing education course about Computational Thinking was conducted with the participation of 14 teachers. The participants could understand the fundamentals of CT, and consequently, became able to planning and conducting CT activities by themselves in their classrooms. After, we analyzed the data gathered during the course under the quantitative and qualitative lenses. RESULTS: The results showed that the participants had a degree of agreement between 56% and 71% regarding the understanding and applicability of CT to developing skills in Primary School. The qualitative findings revealed that the participants could prepare activities that linked CT to topics presented in the subjects of Primary School. Besides, we could identify three patterns of shaping the activities in which this "computational think" were incorporated. CONCLUSION: Practices to stimulate the CT in students are mediated by using different teaching strategies as such Gamification and Culture Maker. These activities also enable the development of skills related to the National Curricular Common Base


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 6668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Gandini ◽  
Giovanna Marchionni ◽  
Luca Studer ◽  
Roberto Maja

Mobility represents a key sector to face climate change and pollution issues. In a broad context of initiatives aimed at making mobility as sustainable as possible, meaningful actions can be oriented to educate people and to encourage their choices towards greener habits. This paper presents an educational package for primary school children to make them aware of sustainable mobility. It is also intended to help stakeholders (researchers, teachers, educators) to increase the sensitivity of children for sustainable mobility. This should support children in adopting more sustainable behaviors. Thus, a detailed description of the educational package, intended as a formative stand-alone module, is provided. This is made up of a brief theoretical explanation and a series of transition educational games. The theoretical part is designed for a young audience and with references to their local context, to make it simple and understandable. The educational games want to make children experience the concepts explained, in a funny way. This educational package was performed three times, involving more than 300 children. The outcomes recorded after each use, with positive feedback from both students and teachers, led to its final configuration. The qualitative results of the three performed experiences are presented here. The educational package is going to be repeated and structured within a wider learning process designed by Politecnico di Milano for primary school children.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-9
Author(s):  
Edoardo Datteri ◽  
Luisa Zecca

Abstract How do children describe and explain the behaviour of robotic systems? In this paper, some distinctions between different types of explanations, drawing from the philosophy of science literature, are proposed and exemplified by reference to an activity in which primary school children are asked to describe and explain the behaviour of a pre-programmed Braitenberg-like vehicle. The proposed distinctions are also discussed against other studies drawn from the related scientific literature. A qualitative study has provided insights to further refine the analysis described here, through the introduction of other sub-categories of explanation of robotic behaviours.


1997 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. TOROS SELCUK ◽  
T. CAG-LAR ◽  
T. ENUNLU ◽  
T. TOPAL

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