TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of interactive unplugged programming activities on computational thinking skills and student engagement in elementary education
AU - Li, Qi
AU - Jiang, Qiang
AU - Liang, Jyh Chong
AU - Xiong, Weiyan
AU - Liang, Yu
AU - Zhao, Wei
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2023/9
Y1 - 2023/9
N2 - Different instructional strategies have been drawn to assist elementary school students in improving computational thinking (CT) skills and student engagement (SE) in unplugged programming activities. This paper aimed to explore how the interactive strategies of unplugged programming affect CT skills and SE. The study was conducted based on a quasi-experimental research method. The sample was composed of 104 sixth-grade students from northern China. The students in the experimental group learned with interactive unplugged programming, whereas those in the control group learned with non-interactive unplugged programming. Analysis of Covariance statistics and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling were adopted for data analysis. Results showed that the performance of the experimental group in CT skills and SE was considerably better than that of the control group. Moreover, the predictive relationships were more complex between CT skills and SE in the experimental group. In general, these findings confirmed the teaching value of interactive unplugged programming, and further emphasized the important role of students’ CT skills in programming engagement. Therefore, through the application of interaction in instruction design, each student can be assigned a positive role to create a programming classroom that is more conducive to students.
AB - Different instructional strategies have been drawn to assist elementary school students in improving computational thinking (CT) skills and student engagement (SE) in unplugged programming activities. This paper aimed to explore how the interactive strategies of unplugged programming affect CT skills and SE. The study was conducted based on a quasi-experimental research method. The sample was composed of 104 sixth-grade students from northern China. The students in the experimental group learned with interactive unplugged programming, whereas those in the control group learned with non-interactive unplugged programming. Analysis of Covariance statistics and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling were adopted for data analysis. Results showed that the performance of the experimental group in CT skills and SE was considerably better than that of the control group. Moreover, the predictive relationships were more complex between CT skills and SE in the experimental group. In general, these findings confirmed the teaching value of interactive unplugged programming, and further emphasized the important role of students’ CT skills in programming engagement. Therefore, through the application of interaction in instruction design, each student can be assigned a positive role to create a programming classroom that is more conducive to students.
KW - Computational thinking skills
KW - Interactive unplugged programming
KW - Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM)
KW - Student engagement
KW - Unplugged programming
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U2 - 10.1007/s10639-023-11634-7
DO - 10.1007/s10639-023-11634-7
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85149545266
SN - 1360-2357
VL - 28
SP - 12293
EP - 12318
JO - Education and Information Technologies
JF - Education and Information Technologies
IS - 9
ER -