DOI: 10.31681/jetol.1375335 ISSN: 2618-6586

Effect of unplugged and plugged coding activities on secondary school students’ computational thinking skills

Tunahan YILMAZ, Serkan İZMİRLİ
  • Psychiatry and Mental health
  • Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
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The objective of this research was to investigate the influence of both unplugged and plugged coding activities on the computational thinking skills of secondary school students. Using an experimental design with a pretest-posttest control group, the study indicated that students enhanced their computational thinking skills through engagement in coding activities. Specifically, students in the experimental group, participating in unplugged coding activities (Tospaa unplugged coding activities), exhibited heightened perception and improved performance in computational thinking skills in the post-test compared to the pre-test. Conversely, the control group, involved in plugged coding activities (Scratch block-based coding), did not show a significant change in perception of computational thinking skills in the post-test compared to the pre-test. However, their performance in computational thinking skills improved significantly in the post-test compared to the pre-test. Furthermore, no significant differences were observed in the perception of computational thinking skills between the unplugged coding group and the plugged coding group, and similarly, no notable distinctions were found in the computational thinking skills performance of both groups. In conclusion, the study suggests a high alignment between students' perceptions of computational thinking and their actual performance in computational thinking.

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