Teaching Computational Thinking and Fostering Literacy Through Computer Programming in Primary Education

This research project investigated how facilitating the computational thinking process of 10-12 year old students through structured decomposition instruction influenced their programming ability. In addition, it tested if programming lessons in Scratch, with or without the inclusion of decomposition instruction, resulted in more complete problem decomposition in writing. Data was collected from 137 students at two Dutch primary schools. No significant differences in programming ability were found between students who received decomposition instruction and those who did not, possibly due to the transfer paradox described in previous research. Furthermore, programming lessons were not found to impact students' mean scores on problem decomposition in writing, but a considerable larger spread in results was observed for students that did not participate in the programming lessons. Based on these findings, the study suggests that the programming lessons might have had a positive impact, especially on lower performing students. Results of the study partially aligned with the Computational Thinking Process Model, which was proposed by the research to accommodate to the scholarly expressed need of a concise and versatile definition of computational thinking for educational science and practice.