İşbirlikli Bilgi İşlemsel Problem Çözmenin Akademik Başarı ve Bilgi İşlemsel Düşünme Becerilerine Etkisi

Abstract

In this study, it was aimed to examine the effect of a collaborative computational problem solving approach on middle school students' computational thinking skills and academic achievement. The pretest-posttest control group design of the quasi-experimental method was used in the study. The computational problem situations developed within the scope of the research and appropriate to the 6th grade matter and heat unit acquisitions were applied individually in Group 1 and collaboratively in Group 2. Computational problem situations were designed within the scope of matter and heat unit and required students to design algorithms and code using Python coding language. The research was conducted with a total of 34 students, 17 girls and 17 boys, in the 6th grade level at a private secondary school in Ankara province. The applications were conducted by the science teacher, and the researcher herself was involved in the process as a participant observer. In order to monitor the development of students' computational thinking skills, the Computational Thinking Test was applied as a pre-test and post-test, and the activities were scored using the computational problem-solving rubric. An academic achievement test was used to monitor the development of students' academic achievement in the matter and heat unit. Nonparametric Mann Whitney-U and Wilcoxon T tests were used to examine the development of students' computational thinking skills and academic achievement. The results obtained from the study showed that the academic achievement and computational thinking skills of the students increased significantly in the groups in which the applications were carried out individually and collaboratively. When the academic achievement and computational thinking posttest scores of the groups were compared, no significant difference was found between the posttest scores. It is predicted that the findings of the research will make significant contributions to the literature on the development of secondary school students' computational thinking skills.