A Scoping Review of Studies on Computational Thinking in K–12 Mathematics Classrooms

Cognitive stimulation of executive functions through computational thinking

The healthy development of cognitive functions, including executive functions, has been shown to depend mainly on the experiences and learning opportunities of people, especially during childhood. Over the past few years, researchers have been studying the impacts of diverse types of interventions on children's cognitive development in which computational thinking programs are a recent field. This pilot study evaluated the effect of computational thinking training based on the "Programming for Children" program on the executive functions of children aged 10 and 11 years: working memory, inhibition, and planning (N = 30). The results showed that children in the experimental group improved on tests of visuospatial working memory, cognitive inhibition, and sequential planning compared with the control group. However, tests of verbal working memory, memory strategy, and visual spatial planning did not show any observed changes. Although this was an exploratory study, and its findings should be interpreted cautiously due to the small sample size, the findings support the relevance and feasibility of conducting similar larger studies with larger samples.

Making programming part of teachers' everyday life – Programming affordances and constraints for K-12 mathematics and technology

Purpose

The conducted examination of programming affordances and constraints had the purpose of adding knowledge and value that facilitate the on-going national curricula revision; knowledge that also could be of general interest outside the Swedish K-12 context.

Design/methodology/approach

With a qualitative approach, the study was conducted as a document analysis where submitted lesson plans were the base for a directed content analysis.

Findings

This study presents findings on how the involvement of programming in mathematics and technology have potential to foster engagement and motivation among students. Findings also indicate that the implementation of programming can develop important general skills that go beyond the boundaries of mathematics and technology. Moreover, the identified constraints could be valuable to improve the on-going curriculum development for K-12 mathematics and technology.

Research limitations/implications

This qualitative study was conducted on a relatively small number of teachers where the majority has taken the courses on a voluntary basis. An important complement would be to conduct a larger quantitative study with data from a more general sample of K-12 teachers.

Practical implications

Results and discussions provide guidance for K-12 teachers and other stakeholders who want to introduce programming as a complementary tool in teaching and learning activities.

Social implications

The study has a contribution to the on-going implementation of the Swedish national curricula for K-12 mathematics and technology.

Originality/value

During the last years, many studies have been published on teacher training in programming, and how the training can be improved. This study goes beyond the actual teacher training and examine aspects teachers translate to theirs daily work after completing the training.

A Systematic Review of Technologies to Teach Control Structures in Preschool Education

There is growing interest in teaching computational thinking (CT) to preschool children given evidence that they are able to understand and use CT concepts. One of the concepts that is central in CT definitions, is the concept of control structures, but it is not clear which tools and activities are successful in teaching it to young learners. This work aims at (1) providing a comprehensive overview of tools that enable preschool children to build programs that include control structures, and (2) analyzing empirical evidence of the usage of these tools to teach control structures to children between 3 and 6. It consists of three parts: systematic literature review (SLR) to identify tools to teach CT to young children, analysis of tools characteristics and the possibilities that they offer to express control structures, and SLR to identify empirical evidence of successful teaching of control structures to young children using relevant tools. This work provides an understanding of the current state of the art and identifies areas that require future exploration.

Educational Robotics Intervention to Foster Computational Thinking in Preschoolers: Effects of Children’s Task Engagement

Computational thinking (CT) is a broadly used term in education to refer to the cognitive processes underlying the application of computer science concepts and strategies of problem-solving. Recent literature has pointed out the value of children acquiring computational thinking skills (i.e., understanding and applying concepts, such as conditionals, iteration, or generalization), especially while learning STEM subjects. Robotics has been used as a tool to introduce computational thinking and STEM knowledge to children. As physical objects, robots have been proposed as developmentally appropriate for the early childhood setting, promoting motivation and allowing young learners to represent abstract ideas in a concrete setting. This study presents a novel educational robotics (ER) intervention using RoboTito, a robot programmable through tangible elements in its environment designed for kindergarteners. We used a quasi-experimental design with an active control group. In addition, we conducted a structured observation of the filmed material of the sessions to gather data on children’s attention and motivation throughout the activities. Fifty-one children (male = 33; mean age = 66 months, SD = 5.49 months) attending level 5 (kindergarten) at a Uruguayan public school participated in the study. Children in our experimental condition participated in an intervention programming RoboTito using tangible elements, while children in our control condition played with the robot through sensory-motor activities using a remote control and did not engage in programming. Motivational and attentional factors were assessed through video-recorded sessions of the ER activities. Four trained observers blind to the experimental conditions participated in the coding. Children’s interactions were assessed in four categories: task engagement, distractibility, oral participation, and objective fulfillment. Our results suggest children’s task engagement mediated their gains in CT after the intervention; post-hoc Tukey contrasts revealed non-significant pre-test to post-test gains for the control and low engagement groups, and significant for the high engagement group. Overall, we conclude task engagement played a central role in children’s learning gains and our robotics intervention was successful in promoting CT for engaged children. We discuss the practical implications of our results for early childhood education and developmentally appropriate ER targeted for young learners.

How to improve the design of experimental studies in computing education: Evidence from the international assessments

Cluster randomized trials are frequently used in educational research for methodological reasons. This study aims to improve the efficiency of cluster randomized trials on computer/information literacy and computational thinking. The study employs a two-level hierarchical linear model to estimate (i) intraclass correlation coefficients, (ii) the amount of explained variances given selected predictors, and (iii) minimum detectable effect sizes given the set of plausible scenarios. Two data cycles from the International Computer and Information Study were used. The covariates at the student level are gender, interest in ICT, parents' highest education level, ICT self-efficacy, and experience with computers. The covariates at school/teacher level are teacher's ICT use, ratio of school size to the number of computers for student use, availability of ICT resources at school, approximate teacher age, and ICT self-efficacy. Findings showed that the most precise effect could be measured when student and teacher/school covariates are both adopted. Lastly, it was revealed that increasing the number of schools is effective to get the most precise effect.

Gender differential item functioning analysis in measuring computational thinking disposition among secondary school students

Computational thinking refers to the cognitive processes underpinning the application of computer science concepts and methodologies to the methodical approach and creation of a solution to a problem. The study aims to determine how students' cognitive, affective, and conative dispositions in using computational thinking are influenced by a gender. This study used a survey research design with quantitative approach. Five hundred thirty-five secondary school students were sampled using probability sampling with the Computational Thinking Disposition Instrument (CTDI). WINSTEPS version 3.71.0 software was subsequently employed to assess the Gender Differential item functioning (GDIF) including reliability and validity with descriptive statistics were employed to assess students' disposition toward practicing computational thinking. In addition to providing implications for the theory, the data give verifiable research that the CT disposition profile consists of three constructs. In addition, the demonstrated CTDI has good GDIF features, which may be employed to evaluate the efficacy of the application of CT in the Malaysian curriculum by measuring the level of CT in terms of the disposition profile of students.

Nutrition across the curriculum: a scoping review exploring the integration of nutrition education within primary schools

Primary schools contribute to promoting healthy eating behaviour and preventing overweight and obesity by providing nutrition education. Research highlights the importance of improving teachers' programme implementation to enhance intervention effectiveness. An integrative approach has been suggested to reduce time barriers that teachers currently experience in teaching nutrition. This scoping review explores use and effectiveness of integrative teaching in primary-school-based nutrition education programmes. Six databases were searched for primary-school-based interventions on nutrition education. Papers reporting on integration of nutrition topics within core curriculum were included. Abstracts and full texts of potentially relevant articles were screened to determine eligibility. Next, data were extracted and tabulated. Findings were collated and summarised to describe intervention characteristics, subject integration and effectiveness of the included programmes. Data describing integration of nutrition into the primary school curriculum were extracted from 39 eligible papers. Nutrition education programmes often involve lessons about food groups and are frequently embedded within the mathematics, science or literacy syllabus. Although articles report on the integration of nutrition, the use of this approach was not commonly described in detail. Only seven papers discussed student outcomes related to the integration of nutrition education within core subjects. The ability to draw strong conclusions about school-based nutrition intervention effectiveness is limited by the current lack of programme description and methodological issues. Hence, more research is warranted to inform evidence on effectiveness of integrative nutrition education for both teacher and student outcomes. Future studies that include greater detail regarding the integrative approach are needed.