Share Paper: Persistence and Achievement in Acquiring Computational Thinking Concepts: A Large-Scale Log-Based Analysis

1. Rotem Israel-Fishelson, Tel Aviv University, Israel
2. Arnon Hershkovitz, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Abstract: Computational Thinking (CT) is believed to be a vital competency for today’s learners, and programs for acquiring and promoting CT have been integrated into curricula of many formal and non-formal learning environments worldwide. In this large-scale study (N=25,812), we explore the acquirement of CT concepts— Sequences, Loops, Data, Parallelism, Conditionals, Operators, and Events—by school children (grades 1-8) who used an online game-based learning environment (CodeMonkey). We do so by analyzing both achievement and persistence in the game. Examining the associations between these two variables, we demonstrate that acquiring CT concepts may not be treated as a unidimensional process. We use ...