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Develo** Computational Thinking Practices in Primary Education. Outcomes from a School-Year Instructional Intervention

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Technology and Innovation in Learning, Teaching and Education (TECH-EDU 2022)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1720))

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Abstract

Computational Thinking (CT), a problem-solving mental activity primarily dependent on abstraction, is regarded as a critical skill set for 21st-century students. Recent academic debates have led to a general agreement about the definition of Computational Thinking and the broad set of knowledge and skills that encloses, which is categorized into concepts, practices, and perspectives. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of a Computational Thinking-based instructional intervention on the development of primary school students’ computational practices. We employed a mixed methods approach and the research sample included 103 primary school students who collaborated in pairs during the regular teaching hour assigned to Information Technology throughout a full school year. Our results suggest that the proposed instructional intervention may enhance students’ perceptions of their problem-solving skills. They also show that students’ participation in testing and debugging as well as reusing and remixing digital games’ code may improve their proficiency level regarding these Computational Thinking practices. Overall, despite its limitations, our study strengthens the hypothesis for the effectiveness of programming to develop primary school students’ Computational Thinking.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Primary Education, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

    Ioannis Vourletsis & Panagiotis Politis

Authors
  1. Ioannis Vourletsis
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  2. Panagiotis Politis
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Correspondence to Ioannis Vourletsis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal

    Arsénio Reis

  2. University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal

    João Barroso

  3. University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal

    Paulo Martins

  4. University of Peloponnese, Tripoli, Greece

    Athanassios Jimoyiannis

  5. National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City, Taiwan

    Ray Yueh-Min Huang

  6. Nova IMS, Lisbon, Portugal

    Roberto Henriques

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Vourletsis, I., Politis, P. (2022). Develo** Computational Thinking Practices in Primary Education. Outcomes from a School-Year Instructional Intervention. In: Reis, A., Barroso, J., Martins, P., Jimoyiannis, A., Huang, R.YM., Henriques, R. (eds) Technology and Innovation in Learning, Teaching and Education. TECH-EDU 2022. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1720. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22918-3_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22918-3_27

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-22918-3

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