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Does Learning to Code Improve Cognitive Skills of Elementary School Children?

Thu, April 8, 10:15 to 11:15am EDT (10:15 to 11:15am EDT), Virtual

Abstract

Abstract
Background: Coding has been added to school curricula in several countries, being one of the necessary competencies of the 21st century. Although it has also been suggested to foster the development of several cognitive skills such as computational thinking and problem-solving, studies on the effects of coding are very limited, provide mixed results, and lack causal evidence.
Aim: This study aims to evaluate the impact of a learn-to-code program on three cognitive skills in children: computational thinking, fluid intelligence, and spatial orientation, using a randomized trial.
Sample: One hundred seventy-four (n=81 girls) 4th grade children participated in the study. Methods: Children were randomly assigned to one of the three 10-week learning programs: learn-to-code (treatment of interest), mathematics (another STEM-related comparison treatment), and reading (control). Children responded to paper-pencil computational thinking, and spatial orientation measurements, and face-to-face matrix reasoning task at pre- and post-tests.
Results and Discussion: Results showed that computational thinking scores of children in the learn-to-code condition significantly increased from pre-test to post-test compared to comparison and control groups. Fluid intelligence scores significantly increased from pre-test to post-test in all conditions, due to a possible practice effect. The spatial orientation did not improve in any of the conditions.
Conclusion: These findings suggested that learning to code can be selectively beneficial for the development of some cognitive skills such as computational thinking. The learn-to-code education program improved computational thinking of children over and above the effect of time.

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