Developing Computational Thinking Scale for Primary School Students and Examining Students' Thinking Levels According to Different Variables

Abstract

In recent years, computational thinking has been considered as one of the 21st century skills that all students should have. Researchers emphasize the importance of determining and developing students' computational thinking levels from the earliest possible age. However, no measurement tool has been found in the literature that aims to reveal the computational thinking levels of primary school students. In this study, it was aimed to develop the computational thinking scale for primary school students and to examine the computational thinking levels of primary school students according to different variables (grade level, daily computer use time). In the first stage of the study, a scale with appropriate psychometric properties was developed to measure computational thinking. In the scale development phase of the research, exploratory sequential mixed methods research design was used. In the other phase of the study, it was investigated whether the computational thinking levels of primary school students differed according to the grade level and daily computer usage time without any intervention. For this reason, the research was carried out in accordance with the general survey model, which is one of the descriptive research types. For the first stage, the study group of the research consisted of 287 students studying in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades of primary schools in Ankara Golbasi district in the second term of the 2021-2022 academic year. In the process of examining the students' computational. thinking levels according to the variables of grade level and daily computer usage time, the study group consisted of a total of 96 students attending the primary education classes of a private school in Ankara in the second term of the 2021-2022 academic year. In this context, the one-dimensional computational thinking scale consisting of 17 items was applied to 287 primary school students and the obtained data were subjected to validity and reliability analysis. According to the explanatory factor analysis, the scale explains 46% of the total variance. When the results of the explanatory factor analysis are examined, it is seen that the factor loads of 17 items in the scale vary between 56 and .86. The internal consistency coefficient of the scale was found to be Cronbach Alpha .92. The developed scale was applied to primary school students in the next stage. As a result of the study, it was found that the generally computational thinking levels of primary school students differed significantly according to the grade level. On the other hand, it was observed that the students' computational thinking levels differed significantly according to the time spent in front of the computer daily, and the mean of the students' computational thinking scale increased as the daily computer use time increased.