Developing Middle School Students’ Computational Thinking Skills Using Unplugged Computing Activities
This study investigated the role of using unplugged computing activities on developing computational thinking (CT) skills of 6th-grade students. The unplugged computing classroom activities were based on the Bebras challenge, an international contest that aims to promote CT and informatics among sch...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Vilnius University
2020-03-01
|
| Series: | Informatics in Education |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.15388/infedu.2020.01 |
| _version_ | 1818617529337118720 |
|---|---|
| author | Havva DELAL Diler ONER |
| author_facet | Havva DELAL Diler ONER |
| author_sort | Havva DELAL |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This study investigated the role of using unplugged computing activities on developing computational thinking (CT) skills of 6th-grade students. The unplugged computing classroom activities were based on the Bebras challenge, an international contest that aims to promote CT and informatics among school students of all ages. Participants of the study were fifty-three 6th-grade students from two public middle schools in Istanbul. The unplugged computing activities involved the tasks with three different difficulty levels covering the CT processes found to be common in CT definitions in the literature. To evaluate students’ CT skills, two equivalent tests were constructed from Bebras tasks considering the same parameters (difficulty levels and CT processes). The results showed that students’ post-test scores were significantly higher than their pre-test scores. There were not any significant differences between students’ scores in terms of gender, and there was no interaction effect between students’ CT scores and their gender. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T17:07:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-95d82d5ff5bb461ebb24588219af0254 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1648-5831 2335-8971 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T17:07:09Z |
| publishDate | 2020-03-01 |
| publisher | Vilnius University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Informatics in Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-95d82d5ff5bb461ebb24588219af02542022-12-21T22:23:32ZengVilnius UniversityInformatics in Education1648-58312335-89712020-03-01191113https://doi.org/10.15388/infedu.2020.01Developing Middle School Students’ Computational Thinking Skills Using Unplugged Computing ActivitiesHavva DELAL0Diler ONER1Kuveyt Turk Participation Bank Inc., Çayırova, Kocaeli, 41420 TurkeyBogazici University, Department of Computer Education and Educational TechnologyThis study investigated the role of using unplugged computing activities on developing computational thinking (CT) skills of 6th-grade students. The unplugged computing classroom activities were based on the Bebras challenge, an international contest that aims to promote CT and informatics among school students of all ages. Participants of the study were fifty-three 6th-grade students from two public middle schools in Istanbul. The unplugged computing activities involved the tasks with three different difficulty levels covering the CT processes found to be common in CT definitions in the literature. To evaluate students’ CT skills, two equivalent tests were constructed from Bebras tasks considering the same parameters (difficulty levels and CT processes). The results showed that students’ post-test scores were significantly higher than their pre-test scores. There were not any significant differences between students’ scores in terms of gender, and there was no interaction effect between students’ CT scores and their gender.https://doi.org/10.15388/infedu.2020.01computational thinkinginformaticsbebrasmiddle schoolunplugged computing activities |
| spellingShingle | Havva DELAL Diler ONER Developing Middle School Students’ Computational Thinking Skills Using Unplugged Computing Activities Informatics in Education computational thinking informatics bebras middle school unplugged computing activities |
| title | Developing Middle School Students’ Computational Thinking Skills Using Unplugged Computing Activities |
| title_full | Developing Middle School Students’ Computational Thinking Skills Using Unplugged Computing Activities |
| title_fullStr | Developing Middle School Students’ Computational Thinking Skills Using Unplugged Computing Activities |
| title_full_unstemmed | Developing Middle School Students’ Computational Thinking Skills Using Unplugged Computing Activities |
| title_short | Developing Middle School Students’ Computational Thinking Skills Using Unplugged Computing Activities |
| title_sort | developing middle school students computational thinking skills using unplugged computing activities |
| topic | computational thinking informatics bebras middle school unplugged computing activities |
| url | https://doi.org/10.15388/infedu.2020.01 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT havvadelal developingmiddleschoolstudentscomputationalthinkingskillsusingunpluggedcomputingactivities AT dileroner developingmiddleschoolstudentscomputationalthinkingskillsusingunpluggedcomputingactivities |