Investigating Computational Thinking–Related Behaviors of Primary School Students: From a Large Data Set on Scratch Community

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session Eight
  In Roundtable Session: Computational Thinking Through Coding, Programming, and Computing (Table 7)

Abstract

This study aims to explore how primary school students’ CT-related behavior profiles emerge in Scratch coding projects and differ across age groups. We used Python to collect and analyze 19,557 coding projects created by 8,572 users, focusing on eight CT-related behaviors. Results showed that upper-grade students not only use more coding blocks but also utilize more diverse and complex coding blocks requiring a deeper understanding of CT skills, compared to lower-grade students. Lower-grade students also appeared to create projects like PowerPoint Slides having lower interaction; on the other hand, upper-grade students created more Game-like coding projects supporting higher user interaction and communication between sprites.

Authors

• Hunhui Na, University of North Carolina - Charlotte
  Presenting Author

• Jewoong Moon, University of Alabama
  Presenting Author