Generalist primary school computer science (CS) teachers are often reluctant to introduce CS activities that go beyond CS unplugged tasks. To address this challenge, we drew from constructive alignment principles to implement a new programming modality for primary school: the handwriting programming language (HPL). HPL brings programming…

Recently, creativity has been acknowledged for its importance in improving computer science learning and attitudes. However, very little is known about how to integrate creativity in preservice teacher computing education. Toward this end, we developed a creativity-enhancement intervention in an online Creative Computing instructional module to…

Today computing is intricate in all aspects of our lives, beginning with communications and education to banking, information security, health, shopping, and social media. Development of the computing is proportional to the development of software which is becoming a serious part of all daily lives. This paper, therefore, assessed the impact of…

Individuals learn to develop problem solving strategies and make connections between their mathematical ideas while programming, so they have the opportunity to improve their thinking skills. Scratch provides an environment to experience problem scenarios and encourages them to act out imagination while having fun. The purpose of the study is to…

Pair programming (PP) can help improve students' computational thinking (CT), but the trajectory of CT skills and the differences between high-scoring and low-scoring students in PP are unknown and need further exploration. In this study, a total of 32 fifth graders worked on Scratch tasks in 16 pairs. The group discourse of three learning topics…

The use of a pedagogical approach mediated transfer with the bridging method has been successful in facilitating the transitions from block-based to text-based programming languages. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research addressing the impact of this transfer on programming misconceptions during the transition. The way programming concepts are…

Background: The present study analyses the design of programming literacy in the sixth grade of Primary Education, starting from the use of simple activities with visual block-based programming, through "Scratch," and progressively linking difficulty to the use of the "Unity" engine, and the "C#" language, with simple…

When the studies on the effectiveness of visual programming language are examined, it is seen that studies on coding teaching have been carried out frequently recently. In this study, Scratch was used as a teaching tool in teaching science lessons. In this way, a new perspective has been brought to Scratch applications. In the related study, the…

Background: Teaching programming and computational thinking is becoming a major issue in many education systems. Numerous approaches are possible, but very few studies compare these different ways of implementing programming and computational thinking learning. Objectives: We compared three ways of teaching programming and computational thinking…

Due to swift technological changes in society, programming tasks are proliferating in formal and informal education around the globe. However, challenges arise regarding the acquisition of programming skills. Many students are unequipped to develop programming skills due to limited instruction or background and therefore feel insecure when…

The purpose of the current study was to explore the effect of modality (constructionist mBlock, Scratch, and Python interventions) on six-grade students' computational thinking, programming attitude, and achievement. The pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental design was used to explore the research questions. The study group consisted of 105…

Learning computer programming can be challenging for primary school students due to its abstract concepts. While teachers seek effective ways to introduce such concepts, the application of learning objects (LOs) can potentially reduce the effort of creating new material from and allows teachers to adapt LOs to students' needs. Although numerous…

This paper systematically explores how Large Language Models (LLMs) generate explanations of code examples of the type used in intro-to-programming courses. As we show, the nature of code explanations generated by LLMs varies considerably based on the wording of the prompt, the target code examples being explained, the programming language, the…

The purposes of the current study were to examine the effectiveness of the multimedia computer-based lessons on programming with Scratch in Technology integrated with the TGT cooperative learning technique based on the 80/80 efficiency criterion, to compare the learning achievement of Grade 7 students between those taught using multimedia…

Background: As one of the mainstream forms of programming education, educational robotics (ER) have been a crucial way to develop K-12 students' programming ability. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to clarify the content of programming ability, to verify the effectiveness of ER as a teaching method to improve students' programming…