Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between computational thinking performance and general school achievement and explores to see if computational thinking performance can be predicted by algebra and informatics achievement. The sample group of 775 grade 8 students was drawn from 28 secondary schools across Kazakhstan. The students responded to a Computational Thinking Performance test of 50 multiple-choice questions and Computational Thinking Scale questionnaire. The test covers the concepts: logical thinking, generalisation and abstraction. The validity and reliability of the multiple-choice questions are tested using the Item Response Theory. The Likert type questionnaire covers five factors: creativity, algorithmic thinking, cooperation, critical thinking and problem solving. School achievement results (secondary data) include scores for a number of school subjects. The results of the study showed that the multiple-choice questions are valid and a reliable tool to measure computational thinking performance of students. Algebra, general school achievement and students’ perception of their computational thinking skills were significant predictors of computational thinking performance. The results revealed no gender difference in computational thinking performance and perceptions of computational thinking. The findings regarding the relationship between computational thinking performance, the students’ general school achievement and perceptions of computational thinking skills are compared and discussed.
Highlights
The idea of integrating computational thinking into the school curriculum as one of the essential abilities of children was first introduced in the 1980s by Seymour Papert (1980), and has become popular with the widespread development of STEM education and 21st century skill sets
Multiple-choice questions mainly focused on logics, abstraction and generalisation were constructed to measure students’ computational thinking performance
The results show that students’ general school achievement, algebra achievement (RQ2) and perception of computational thinking skills (RQ4) can be predictors of their computational thinking performance
Summary
The idea of integrating computational thinking into the school curriculum as one of the essential abilities of children was first introduced in the 1980s by Seymour Papert (1980), and has become popular with the widespread development of STEM education and 21st century skill sets. As computational thinking is related to problem solving skills (Román-González, Pérez-González, & Jiménez-Fernández, 2016) and academic success (Ambrosio, Almeida, Franco, & Macedo, 2014; Durak & Saritepeci, 2017; Gouws, Bradshaw, & Wentworth, 2013), students’ general school achievement and especially algebra performance could be predictors. It is used to measure the perception of computational thinking in this study
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