Computational thinking skills and its impact on TIMSS achievement: An Instructional Design Approach

Abstract

The need in raising levels of achievement in math and science has led instructional design researchers to a focus on investigating the factors that shape achievement in these subjects. Understanding how students think might influence Mathematics achievement may guide educators in their efforts to raise achievement by designing learning models that provide most efficient and effective instructional strategies and learning experiences. This research examined relationships between Computational thinking skills (CT) and their results in Mathematics test in TIMSS. Five skills of CT were considered: creativity, algorithmic thinking, cooperativity, critical thinking and problem solving. Being aware of thinking skills and their influence on students' results may provide educators with ideas for designing instruction and may help improve TIMSS achievement. Participants were 46 Students; 100% were female. Results indicated that high CT levels predicted of high Mathematics results in TIMSS. Problem solving skill had the highest impact in the test result, while the creativity skill was the least influential. It was concluded that students might need to improve their solving problems skill rather than their critical thinking skill in order to become successful in TIMSS assessments. Further empirical evidence is needed for whether CT tools improves students’ achievement.