Computational Thinking in Primary School: An Examination of Abstraction and Decomposition in Different Age Groups
Despite a growing effort to implement computational thinking (CT) skills in primary schools, little research is reported about what CT skills to teach at what age. Therefore, the research questions that guide this study read: (1) How is age related to students' success in computational thinking...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Vilnius University
2018-04-01
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| Series: | Informatics in Education |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://infedu.vu.lt/doi/10.15388/infedu.2018.05 |
| _version_ | 1798035572737966080 |
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| author | Wouter J. RIJKE Lars BOLLEN Tessa H. S. EYSINK Jos L. J. TOLBOOM |
| author_facet | Wouter J. RIJKE Lars BOLLEN Tessa H. S. EYSINK Jos L. J. TOLBOOM |
| author_sort | Wouter J. RIJKE |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Despite a growing effort to implement computational thinking (CT) skills in primary schools, little research is reported about what CT skills to teach at what age. Therefore, the research questions that guide this study read: (1) How is age related to students' success in computational thinking tasks? (2) How are computational thinking tasks perceived by students? (3) How do students' experience learning with respect to computational thinking? 200 primary school students between the age of 6 and 12 participated in this study. These students got introduced to two CT subjects: abstraction and decomposition. We found that age seems to be related with these concepts, with an interaction effect for gender in the abstraction task. No differences found between young and older students in the constructs perceived difficulty, cognitive load, and flow indicate that young primary school students can engage in learning these CT skills. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T21:00:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-41bffa657aca414ab55d9a18dd083063 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1648-5831 2335-8971 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T21:00:04Z |
| publishDate | 2018-04-01 |
| publisher | Vilnius University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Informatics in Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-41bffa657aca414ab55d9a18dd0830632022-12-22T04:03:32ZengVilnius UniversityInformatics in Education1648-58312335-89712018-04-01171779210.15388/infedu.2018.05Computational Thinking in Primary School: An Examination of Abstraction and Decomposition in Different Age GroupsWouter J. RIJKE0Lars BOLLEN1Tessa H. S. EYSINK2Jos L. J. TOLBOOM3Department of Instructional Technology, University of Twente, Enschede, The NetherlandsDepartment of Instructional Technology, University of Twente, Enschede, The NetherlandsDepartment of Instructional Technology, University of Twente, Enschede, The NetherlandsStichting Leerplanontwikkeling SLO, Enschede, The NetherlandsDespite a growing effort to implement computational thinking (CT) skills in primary schools, little research is reported about what CT skills to teach at what age. Therefore, the research questions that guide this study read: (1) How is age related to students' success in computational thinking tasks? (2) How are computational thinking tasks perceived by students? (3) How do students' experience learning with respect to computational thinking? 200 primary school students between the age of 6 and 12 participated in this study. These students got introduced to two CT subjects: abstraction and decomposition. We found that age seems to be related with these concepts, with an interaction effect for gender in the abstraction task. No differences found between young and older students in the constructs perceived difficulty, cognitive load, and flow indicate that young primary school students can engage in learning these CT skills.https://infedu.vu.lt/doi/10.15388/infedu.2018.05Computational Thinkingabstractiondecompositionprimary schoolprogrammingperceived difficulty |
| spellingShingle | Wouter J. RIJKE Lars BOLLEN Tessa H. S. EYSINK Jos L. J. TOLBOOM Computational Thinking in Primary School: An Examination of Abstraction and Decomposition in Different Age Groups Informatics in Education Computational Thinking abstraction decomposition primary school programming perceived difficulty |
| title | Computational Thinking in Primary School: An Examination of Abstraction and Decomposition in Different Age Groups |
| title_full | Computational Thinking in Primary School: An Examination of Abstraction and Decomposition in Different Age Groups |
| title_fullStr | Computational Thinking in Primary School: An Examination of Abstraction and Decomposition in Different Age Groups |
| title_full_unstemmed | Computational Thinking in Primary School: An Examination of Abstraction and Decomposition in Different Age Groups |
| title_short | Computational Thinking in Primary School: An Examination of Abstraction and Decomposition in Different Age Groups |
| title_sort | computational thinking in primary school an examination of abstraction and decomposition in different age groups |
| topic | Computational Thinking abstraction decomposition primary school programming perceived difficulty |
| url | https://infedu.vu.lt/doi/10.15388/infedu.2018.05 |
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