Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology
The effect of block-based programming activities on the computational thinking skills of pre-service primary school teachers
Jan Pršala 1
More Detail
1 Department of Applied Cybernetics, Faculty of Science, University of Hradec Králové, Czechia
Open Access Full Text (PDF)
ARTICLE INFO

Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology, 2024 - Volume 6 Issue 3, pp. 1-9
https://doi.org/10.33902/jpsp.202426267

Article Type: Research Article

Published Online: 25 May 2024

Views: 1096 | Downloads: 689

ABSTRACT
The aim of this paper was to analyse the level of computational thinking among pre-service primary school teachers and to measure the effect of block-based activities, in a form of programming projects in Scratch, on the computational thinking and programming skills developed by these pre-service teachers. To assess their knowledge, the Beginners Computational Thinking Test was used. The results indicate that pre-service teachers have a high level of understanding of sequences and loops, but low level of understanding of conditionals. A positive statistically significant difference was found in the understanding before and after they used Scratch.     
KEYWORDS
students’ gender school location correlation academic achievement in economics
In-text citation: (Pršala, 2024)
Reference: Pršala, J. (2024). The effect of block-based programming activities on the computational thinking skills of pre-service primary school teachers. Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology, 6(3), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.33902/jpsp.202426267
In-text citation: (1), (2), (3), etc.
Reference: Pršala J. The effect of block-based programming activities on the computational thinking skills of pre-service primary school teachers. Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology. 2024;6(3), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.33902/jpsp.202426267
In-text citation: (1), (2), (3), etc.
Reference: Pršala J. The effect of block-based programming activities on the computational thinking skills of pre-service primary school teachers. Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology. 2024;6(3):1-9. https://doi.org/10.33902/jpsp.202426267
In-text citation: (Pršala, 2024)
Reference: Pršala, Jan. "The effect of block-based programming activities on the computational thinking skills of pre-service primary school teachers". Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology 2024 6 no. 3 (2024): 1-9. https://doi.org/10.33902/jpsp.202426267
In-text citation: (Pršala, 2024)
Reference: Pršala, J. (2024). The effect of block-based programming activities on the computational thinking skills of pre-service primary school teachers. Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology, 6(3), pp. 1-9. https://doi.org/10.33902/jpsp.202426267
In-text citation: (Pršala, 2024)
Reference: Pršala, Jan "The effect of block-based programming activities on the computational thinking skills of pre-service primary school teachers". Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology, vol. 6, no. 3, 2024, pp. 1-9. https://doi.org/10.33902/jpsp.202426267
REFERENCES
  • Ambrosio, A. P., Almeida, L. da S., Franco, A., & Macedo, J. (2014). Exploring core cognitive skills of computational thinking. The Psychology of Programming Interest Group-University of Liverpool.
  • Basso, D., Fronza, I., Colombi, A., & Pahl, C. (2018). Improving assessment of computational thinking through a comprehensive framework. In M. Joy & P. Ihantola (Eds.), ACM Proceedings of the 18th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research (pp. 1-5). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3279720.3279735
  • Bocconi, S., Chioccariello, A., Kampylis, P., Dagienė, V., Wastiau, P., Engelhardt, K., Earp, J., Horvath, M.A., Jasutė, E., Malagoli, C., Masiulionytė-Dagienė, V. & Stupurienė, G. (2022). Reviewing Computational thinking in compulsory education. Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2760/126955
  • Brennan, K., & Resnick, M. (2012). New frameworks for studying and assessing the development of computational thinking. Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association.
  • Fagerlund J, Häkkinen P, Vesisenaho M, & Viiri J. (2020). Computational thinking in programming with Scratch in primary schools: A systematic review. Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 29(1), 12-28. https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.22255
  • Kalaš, I., & Miková, K. (2020). Základy programování ve Scratch pro 5. ročník zš [Basics of programming in Scratch for the 5th year of elementary school]. Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích, České Budějovice.
  • Lessner, D. (2014). Analysis of the meaning of the term "Computational thinking”. Journal of Technology and Information Education, 6(1), 71-88. https://doi.org/10.5507/jtie.2014.006
  • Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic & NPI Czech Republic. (2021). Nová informatika v RVP ZV [New informatics in RVP ZV]. Author.
  • Montiel, H., & Gomez-Zermeño, M. (2021). Educational challenges for computational thinking in K–12 education: A systematic literature review of "Scratch" as an innovative programming tool. Computers, 10, 69. https://doi.org/10.3390/computers10060069
  • Moreno-León, J., & Robles, G. (2015). Dr. Scratch: A web tool to automatically evaluate Scratch projects. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 15, 132–133. https://doi.org/10.1145/2818314.2818338
  • Piedade, J., & Dorotea, N. (2023). Effects of Scratch-based activities on 4th-grade students’ computational thinking skills. Informatics in Education, 22(3), 19. https://doi.org/10.15388/infedu.2023.19
  • Piedade, J., Dorotea, N., Ferrentini, F.S., & Pedro, A. (2019). A cross-analysis of block-based and visual programming apps with computer science student-teachers. Education Sciences, 9(3), 181. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci9030181
  • Poulakis, E., & Politis, P. (2021). Computational thinking assessment: literature review. In T. Tsiatsos, S. Demetriadis, A. Mikropoulos, & V. Dagdilelis (Eds.), Research on E-Learning and ICT in Education (pp. 111-128). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64363-8_7
  • Ramos, J. L., & Espadeiro, R. G. (2014). Os futuros professores e os professores do futuro. Os desafios da introdução ao pensamento computacional na escola, no currículo e na aprendizagem [Future teachers and teachers of the future. The challenges of introducing computational thinking in school, in the curriculum and in learning]. Educação, Formação e Tecnologias, 7(2), 4–25. http://hdl.handle.net/10174/14227
  • Resnick, M., Maloney, J., Monroy-Hernández, A., Rusk, N., Eastmond, E., Brennan, K., Millner, A., Rosenbaum, E., Silver, J., Silverman, B., & Kafai, Y. (2009). Scratch: programming for all. Communications of the ACM, 52, 60-67. https://doi.org/10.1145/1592761.1592779
  • Román González, M. (2015, July). Computational thinking test: Design guidelines and content validation [Paper presentation]. 7th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, IATED Academy, Barcelona, Spain.
  • Román González, M., Moreno Léon, J., & Robles, G. (2019). Combining assessement tools for a comprehensive evaluation of computational thinking interventions. In S. C. Kong, & H. Abelson (Eds.), Computational thinking education (pp. 79-98). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6528-7_6
  • Sáez-López, J.-M., Román-González, M., Vázquez-Cano, E. (2016). Visual programming languages integrated across the curriculum in elementary school: A two year case study using “Scratch” in five schools. Computers & Education, 97, 129–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.03.003
  • Scratch. (n.d.). About Scratch. Author. https://scratch.mit.edu/
  • Sigayret, K., Tricot, A., & Blanc, N. (2022). Unplugged or plugged-in programming learning: A comparative experimental study. Computers & Education, 184, 104505. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2022.104505
  • Stephens, M., & Buteau, C. (2023). Introduction to the special issue on “Computational thinking and mathematics teaching and learning”. Journal of Pedagogical Research, 7(2), 1-4. https://doi.org/10.33902/JPR.202313362
  • Vaníček, J. (2019). Early programming education based on concept building. Constructivist Foundation, 14(3), 360–372.
  • Weintrop, D., & Wilensky, U. (2015). Using commutative assessments to compare conceptual understanding in blocks-based and text-based programs. In B. Dorn & J. Sheard (Eds.), ICER '15: Proceedings of the eleventh annual International Conference on International Computing Education Research (pp.101-110). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/2787622.2787721
  • Weintrop, D., & Wilensky, U. (2017). How block-based languages support novices: a framework for categorizing block-based affordances. Journal of Visual Languages and Sentient Systems, 3, 92-100. https://doi.org/10.18293/VLSS2017-006
  • Wing, J. M. (2006). Computational thinking. Communications of the ACM, 49, 33-35. https://doi.org/10.1145/1118178.1118215
  • Xia, B. S. (2017). A pedagogical review of programming education research: what have we learned. International Journal of Online Pedagogy and Course Design, 7(1), 33–42. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJOP-CD.2017010103
  • Zapata Cáceres, M., Martín Barroso, E., & Román González, M. (2020). Computational thinking test for beginners: Design and content validation. In A. Cardoso, G. R. Alves, & M. T. Restivo (Eds.), Proceedings of the IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON 2020) (pp. 1905-1914). Educon. https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON45650.2020.9125368
LICENSE
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.