An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study of Sixth-Grade Primary School Students’ Problem-Solving Strategies and Difficulties with Loops in the Educational Programming Game Rapid Router

Educational games are widely used to introduce programming concepts and foster computational thinking skills among young learners by offering engaging and interactive environments that enhance motivation and encourage active participation. However, limited research has examined the difficulties primary school students encounter and the problem-solving strategies they use when learning fundamental programming concepts through educational games. This article presents the findings of an exploratory mixed-methods study involving 34 sixth-grade primary school students and investigates the difficulties and problem-solving strategies observed while learning loops (simple loops, nested loops, and repeat-until structures) through a block-based programming game. An instructor dashboard was used to monitor students’ progress across game levels, while screen recordings were analyzed to identify difficulties and problem-solving behaviors during gameplay. In addition, quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted on students’ worksheet responses. The findings indicate recurring difficulties in recognizing repeating patterns, using loops efficiently, determining repetition counts, coordinating inner and outer repetitions, and managing longer command patterns. Students also demonstrated orientation errors and frequently relied on sequential commands and trial-and-error when constructing their solutions. The analysis also showed that students adopted different problem-solving approaches when constructing solutions across the three loop types. Additionally, several game design features appeared to be associated with some of the observed difficulties and problem-solving behaviors. These findings provide insight into students’ problem-solving processes when learning loops through educational programming games and may inform the design and instructional use of such environments.