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Performance in and perceptions of computational thinking (CT) are considered vital dimensions for comprehensively assessing CT skills of students. In this study, secondary school students’ CT performance and their perceptions were examined in terms of certain variables including gender, grade level, achievement and self‐efficacy. Casual‐comparative and correlational methods were used. The sample of the study consisted of a total of 328 fifth‐ and sixth‐grade (10–12 years old) secondary school students taking visual programming lessons. CT performance and perception tests were employed as data collection tools. The results show that CT performance of boys was higher than that of girls. A significant difference was found in both CT performance and perception depending on grades. The results show that achievement in math positively affected CT performance and perception. However, achievement in IT affected CT performance less than achievement in math. Implications are discussed in terms of theoretical insights, practices for improving CT skills in secondary schools and directions for further research. What is already known about this topic Due to the complex structure of computational thinking (CT) in association with computers, cognition, learning and psychology, CT skills should be evaluated from a variety of perspectives. CT performance and perception are considered vital dimensions for comprehensively assessing students’ CT skills. What this paper adds This paper proposes a CT performance test and a CT perception scale for secondary school students to explore their skills in terms of certain variables including gender, grade level and achievements in math and information technology (IT) courses. This paper provides some evidence that CT performance of boys is better than that of girls. A significant difference was found in both CT performance and perception depending on grades. The results of the study show that math course achievement positively affected CT performance and perception. However, IT course achievement affected CT performance less than math course achievement. Implications for practice and/or policy CT performance is affected by different variables. Therefore, it may be beneficial to include specific topics in the curriculum that involve the use of more CT skills. Girls’ interest and participation in practices such as programming can be encouraged. Teachers should provide students with cognitive scaffolding to help them and to have them collaborate with each other during CT activities, especially at higher grades. IT course content should include systematic and comprehensive CT activities to improve students’ CT skills. We suggest developing and implementing a holistic curriculum combined with IT and math lessons to improve students’ CT performance.

The aim of this study was to reveal pre-service teachers' experiences in learning robotics design and programming. Data were collected from 15 pre-service teachers through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the content analysis method. Three themes were identified in this study: Course process, professional development and teaching children. The pre-service teachers indicated that they found opportunities to learn by doing and experience, enjoyed doing robotics activities and felt in flow in this process. They also expressed that the robotics programming course positively influenced their attitudes towards programming and improved their programming skills. They emphasized the importance of keeping their intrinsic motivation high by maintaining their individual efforts to solve problems. Moreover, they made various suggestions for teaching robotics to children. Implications are discussed in terms of practices for educational robotics in teacher training, and further research directions.