BBC Micro:bit Experiments – Spicing Up Computational Thinking Skills

Kastner-Hauler, Oliver; Sabitzer, Barbara; Tengler, Karin

doi:10.21125/inted.2020.1385

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The first step was to identify existing teaching materials and teacher readiness for CT uses in class. The need to vary the difficulty levels of existing example tasks from an identified source, the OER textbook and wiki for the micro:bit (Bachinger and Teufel, 2018b ), was denoted and further investigated (Kastner-Hauler et al, 2020 ). The next step, during pandemic constraints, was to adapt an example task (Kastner-Hauler et al, 2021 ) for flipped classroom delivery (Lage et al, 2000 ; Bergmann and Sams, 2012 ; Buchner, 2018 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previously conducted studies on broadening awareness and application of computational thinking with physical computing included scaffolding material for learning and teaching CT with an Open Educational Resource (OER) textbook (Bachinger and Teufel, 2018a ) and in combination with the Flipped Classroom method (Kastner-Hauler, 2020 ; Kastner-Hauler et al, 2021 ). Previous cycles have included studies of CT task difficulty recognition and design (Kastner-Hauler et al, 2020 ) and evaluation of the OER textbook usage to promote CT (Bachinger et al, 2021 ). For this paper, we focus on a sub-study in which instructional units were designed for third and fourth-grade students (ages 8–10) using the micro:bit.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Combined Effects of Block-Based Programming and Physical Computing on Primary Students' Computational Thinking Skills

Kastner-Hauler¹,

Tengler²,

Sabitzer

et al. 2022

Front. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Basic Digital Education (BDE) is already planned to be integrated with the forthcoming curriculum for Austrian primary schools (6–10 years) as it was already implemented for lower secondary schools (10–14 years) in 2018. BDE includes the most essential and novel developments of Computational Thinking (CT), which are fundamentally responsible for nurturing students' problem-solving skills. Thus, evaluating teaching materials, scaffolding guidelines, and assessments is becoming increasingly important for the successful implementation of CT in Austrian classrooms. This study is a part of a longitudinal multi-cycle educational design research project aiming to explore how to foster CT and to raise the awareness, importance, and confidence of teachers and students in applying CT for everyday uses. Our paper focuses on a sub-study in which teaching units for grade 3 and 4 students (8–10 years) were designed by combining an Open Educational Resource (OER) textbook and Physical Computing with the micro:bit device. The designed learning environment consists of three units and was implemented in two classes over 3 weeks. The two classes were further split into two groups each, to ensure better support during implementation. The class teachers received upfront teacher training and conducted pre- and post-test assessments with the students. The resulting data was then analyzed to gain insights into the effects on CT skills of the young learners. Results showed that combining block-based programming and physical computing devices could become a promising approach to promote computational thinking skills in lower school grades. Furthermore, the observed direction of the designed units supports low-barrier access to increase the desired uses of CT in classrooms.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combined Effects of Block-Based Programming and Physical Computing on Primary Students' Computational Thinking Skills

Kastner-Hauler¹,

Tengler²,

Sabitzer

et al. 2022

Front. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The first step was to identify existing teaching materials and teacher readiness for CT uses in class. The need to vary the difficulty levels of existing example tasks from an identified source, the OER textbook and wiki for the micro:bit (Bachinger and Teufel, 2018b), was denoted and further investigated (Kastner-Hauler et al, 2020). The next step, during pandemic constraints, was to adapt an example task (Kastner-Hauler et al, 2021) for flipped classroom delivery (Lage et al, 2000;Bergmann and Sams, 2012;Buchner, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previously conducted studies on broadening awareness and application of computational thinking with physical computing included scaffolding material for learning and teaching CT with an Open Educational Resource (OER) textbook (Bachinger and Teufel, 2018a) and in combination with the Flipped Classroom method (Kastner-Hauler, 2020;Kastner-Hauler et al, 2021). Previous cycles have included studies of CT task difficulty recognition and design (Kastner-Hauler et al, 2020) and evaluation of the OER textbook usage to promote CT (Bachinger et al, 2021). For this paper, we focus on a sub-study in which instructional units were designed for third and fourth-grade students (ages 8-10) using the micro:bit.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%