Exploration of computational thinking based on bebras performance in webduino programming by high school students

Abstract

The 12-year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan includes learning performances related to computational thinking and programming languages in technology courses. The students will develop other important competence through programming. Learning a programming language should not only involve focus on writing the programs, but should also stimulate students’ computational thinking competence and allow them to solve daily problems through information techniques. Situated learning emphasizes students’ learning in real scenarios where knowledge is applied as the tool in these real situations. Without such scenarios, the tool has limited value. Likewise, computational thinking competence can be translated as effective problemsolving by the means of information technology. Hence, the thinking process involves analyzing the problems resulting in answers. In addition, the Bebras learning model is based on a concept of informatics which supports comprehension of information science phenomenon and development of computational thinking. This study explored the effects of computational thinking competence on the Bebras test performance. The study targeted senior high school students’ who learned program design using a situated learning strategy. The results confirm the importance of the situated learning strategy when cultivating students’ computational thinking competence. Based on homogeneity of two groups of students, the experimental group’s posttest score of computational thinking is higher than that of control group. The experimental group were exposed to a situated learning strategy and the control group was not. Significant difference between the two groups shows that the situated learning strategy reinforces computational thinking competence.