Exploring the Effect of a Robotics Laboratory on Computational Thinking Skills in Primary School Children Using the Bebras Tasks

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

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

2020 IEEE 20th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT) ◽

10.1109/icalt49669.2020.00061 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Liina Malva ◽

Danial Hooshyar ◽

Yeongwook Yang ◽

Margus Pedaste

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Study ◽

Primary School ◽

School Children ◽

Educational Games ◽

Computational Thinking ◽

Primary School Children

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DuinoBlocks4Kids: Using Free Technology and Low-Cost Materials for the Exercise of Computational Thinking in Primary School via Programming and Educational Robotics

Revista Brasileira de Informática na Educação ◽

10.5753/rbie.2019.27.02.167 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 27 (02) ◽

pp. 167

Author(s):

Rubens Lacerda Queiroz ◽

Fábio Ferrentini Sampaio ◽

Mônica Pereira Dos Santos

Keyword(s):

Primary School ◽

Error Detection ◽

Computer Programming ◽

Low Cost ◽

Computational Thinking ◽

Thinking Skills ◽

Primary School Children ◽

Conditional Logic ◽

Educational Robotics ◽

Purely Sequential

This paper presents a case study about the development of Computational Thinking in primary school children (3st to 4th grade) via the teaching of programming abilities with the use of educational robotics, free technology and recyclable, low cost materials. We aimed at raising some hypotheses on whether there is a straight relationship between some cognitive aspects of children aged 8-10 (such as the ability to put events and ideas in sequence, the ability to execute mental operations on the basis of concrete experience, among others) and the ability to execute activities that may be linked to the learning of computer programming. The observed results indicated (from the use of a didactic kit developed for the accomplishment of this study) the possibility to develop the following computational thinking skills: abstract thinking ability, understanding of flows of control, Debugging and systematic error detection, iterative thinking, use of conditional logic and problem decomposition. Regarding the investigations related to cognitive maturity, we found evidence of a correlation between the cognitive characteristics analyzed and the performance of certain tasks related to computer programming, such as the development of purely sequential programs and understanding of processing idea.

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Promoting computational thinking and creativeness in primary school children

Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality - TEEM 2017 ◽

10.1145/3144826.3145354 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Giuseppe Chiazzese ◽

Giovanni Fulantelli ◽

Vito Pipitone ◽

Davide Taibi

Keyword(s):

Primary School ◽

School Children ◽

Computational Thinking ◽

Primary School Children

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Educational Robotics in Primary School: Measuring the Development of Computational Thinking Skills with the Bebras Tasks

Informatics ◽

10.3390/informatics6040043 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 43 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Chiazzese ◽

Arrigo ◽

Chifari ◽

Lonati ◽

Tosto

Keyword(s):

Primary School ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Computational Thinking ◽

Fourth Grade ◽

Thinking Skills ◽

Research Field ◽

Primary School Children ◽

Control Group ◽

Educational Robotics ◽

K 12

Research has shown that educational robotics can be an effective tool to increase students’ acquisition of knowledge in the subjects of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and promote, at the same time, a progression in the development of computational thinking (CT) skills in K–12 (kindergarten to 12th grade) education. Within this research field, the present study first sought to assess the effect of a robotics laboratory on the acquisition of CT-related skills in primary school children. The study also aimed to compare the magnitude of the effect of the laboratory across third- and fourth-grade students. For the purpose of the study, a quasi-experimental post-test-only design was adopted, and a group of 51 students, from third- and fourth-grade classrooms, participating in the robotics laboratories, were compared to a control group of 32 students from classrooms of the same grades. A set of Bebras tasks was selected as an overall measure of CT skills and was administered to children in both the intervention and control groups. Overall, the results showed that programming robotics artefacts may exert a positive impact on students’ learning of computational thinking skills. Moreover, the effect of the intervention was found to be greater among third-grade children.

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Teachers’ Demographic Variables as Predictors of Critical Thinking Skills of School Children: Implications for School Counselling

Global Journal of Health Science ◽

10.5539/gjhs.v12n5p91 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (5) ◽

pp. 91 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Felix Okechukwu Ugwuozor ◽

Moses Onyemaechi Ede ◽

Odozi Clara Ifelunni ◽

Godwin C. Abiogu

Keyword(s):

Critical Thinking ◽

Primary School ◽

School Children ◽

Sampling Technique ◽

Thinking Skills ◽

Demographic Variables ◽

Critical Thinking Skills ◽

Primary School Children ◽

Test Form ◽

Enugu State

This study explored the extent to which teachers’ demographic variables predict the critical thinking skills of school children, and the educational implications. The study was guided by research questions and null hypotheses, which used a correlation survey design. The population size was 17,928 middle basic pupils in all government-owned schools in Enugu State, Nigeria. Out of the target population, 1,400 pupils were selected using a multistage sampling technique. The instrument used was theCornell Class-Reasoning Test, Form X, which contains 72 items and assessed the respondents’ critical thinking skills. The data collected was analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Major findings revealed that teachers’ gender does not significantly predict the critical thinking skills of primary-school children in Enugu State, and that teachers’ age does not predict critical thinking of primary school children to a large extent. Last, it was found that teachers’ location does not predict the critical thinking skills of primary schoolchildren to a large extent. Based on the findings, counseling implications and recommendations are made.

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