The Effect of Time Management and Help-Seeking in Self-Regulation-Based Computational Thinking Learning in Taiwanese Primary School Students

Abstract

Computational thinking skills are increasingly required for working with information technology products and are considered core learning objectives in science and technology curriculums across all grades. However, there is yet to be a curriculum model for computational thinking, and many teachers are still figuring out this issue and designing courses to cultivate these skills in students. We planned 8-course periods for 108 curriculums, using the Bebras International Computational Thinking Challenge and programming learning motivation scale to evaluate game-based lessons from Code.org. The grade-3 and -4 students were randomly divided into self-regulation and guided-learning groups, and 153 valid data were analyzed using paired t tests and ANCOVA. As a result, we found the learning behaviors of the two groups of students to be worthy of further exploration in terms of time management and help-seeking learning strategies. Code.org’s game-based lessons effectively engage students to complete most of the course, addressing the usual course completion issues when self-paced. The self-regulation group spent more time in peer discussions and had better learning outcomes than the guided-learning group. To this end, we provide detailed curriculum information as a teaching model for the self-regulated learning of computational thinking in primary schools.