A Study of Enhancing Computational Thinking Skills through STEAM Robotics Activities

Abstract

STEAM robotics activities are designed to be an enhancement on students’ computational thinking skills, which are claimed to be essential for the 21st century. The aims of this study were to examine the learning outcomes of secondary students’ computational thinking skills through the use of STEAM robotics activities, and to investigate the students’ satisfaction after the implementation of STEAM robotics activities. A quasi-experimental research design was deployed in this study. The research participants were 37 eleventh-grade students of Private Islamic Schools in Yala province, Thailand. A quiz with pre- and post-test and satisfaction questionnaires were employed as data. Descriptive statistics – including mean, standard deviation and a pair sample t-test – was used to analyse the collected data. The findings were that students’ learning outcomes indicated a significant improvement in their computational skills after the use of STEAM robotics activities as compared with before, with the statistical level of significance of 0.05. In response to the second research question, the overall satisfaction of the students after the use of such STEAM robotics activities was high (mean=4.01; SD=0.54).