Robotics is needed as education keeps up with challenges students are facing in a technological environment. A long-term research project focuses on developing a feasible robotics-based learning environment that enables primary school teachers to introduce computer science education. This paper shows educational robotics combining storytelling to promote computational thinking through the method of Tell, Draw, and Code. The study was conducted via pre–post test, using the Beginners Computational Thinking test (BCTt), with third and fourth graders (N = 40) to determine if the integration of robotics-based storytelling activities enhances computational thinking skills. Results show that an increase in computational thinking is evident after the intervention is implemented. The approach of combining stories, texts, and literature with educational robotics seems to be a promising concept to equip students with the required skills.

Basic Digital Education (BDE) is already planned to be integrated with the forthcoming curriculum for Austrian primary schools (6–10 years) as it was already implemented for lower secondary schools (10–14 years) in 2018. BDE includes the most essential and novel developments of Computational Thinking (CT), which are fundamentally responsible for nurturing students' problem-solving skills. Thus, evaluating teaching materials, scaffolding guidelines, and assessments is becoming increasingly important for the successful implementation of CT in Austrian classrooms. This study is a part of a longitudinal multi-cycle educational design research project aiming to explore how to foster CT and to raise the awareness, importance, and confidence of teachers and students in applying CT for everyday uses. Our paper focuses on a sub-study in which teaching units for grade 3 and 4 students (8–10 years) were designed by combining an Open Educational Resource (OER) textbook and Physical Computing with the micro:bit device. The designed learning environment consists of three units and was implemented in two classes over 3 weeks. The two classes were further split into two groups each, to ensure better support during implementation. The class teachers received upfront teacher training and conducted pre- and post-test assessments with the students. The resulting data was then analyzed to gain insights into the effects on CT skills of the young learners. Results showed that combining block-based programming and physical computing devices could become a promising approach to promote computational thinking skills in lower school grades. Furthermore, the observed direction of the designed units supports low-barrier access to increase the desired uses of CT in classrooms.

ChatGPT is a chatbot with potential educational benefits, particularly in enhancing computational thinking (CT) proficiencies such as programming, debugging, and algorithmic thinking for students. Despite its promise, there is limited research on how ChatGPT can specifically support the integration of CT into mathematics education using tools like GeoGebra. The researchers implemented plugged-computational thinking in mathematics (Math+CT) lessons by means of the utilization of GeoGebra, an application that requires students to input commands in order to generate mathematical objects. The present investigation employed an educational design research (EDR) methodology in which the researchers incorporate ChatGPT into our Math+CT lessons to assist students in accomplishing the task. We purposely selected the participants who are mainly postgraduate students and collected data from the participants’ conversation with ChatGPT and recorded their screens while interacting with ChatGPT and our Math+CT task. We analyzed the data through descriptive qualitative method on the participants’ prompts, the final codes and the number of iterations. The researchers examined how ChatGPT could be utilized to assist the participants in writing GeoGebra commands in terms of its benefits and limitations. ChatGPT assisted most participants in completing the task successfully, with only a basic need for proficiency in GeoGebra commands, mathematics, and critical thinking. However, it revealed that participants did not yet utilize an affective prompt to ChatGPT. Furthermore, ChatGPT has the potential to be utilized for differentiated instruction due to the fact that its responses to individual users vary significantly based on the input prompts. Limited understanding of basic GeoGebra commands, and mathematical concepts could hinder the participants from training ChatGPT or prevent them from arguing with ChatGPT. This study enhances the existing literature by illustrating that ChatGPT can facilitate critical CT aspects, including programming and debugging, in a mathematics education context. This suggests that AI tools such as ChatGPT can contribute to the development of independent problem-solving skills, provide tailored support based on the needs of individual students, and enhance personalized learning experiences. Additional research involving students in school is required in order to gain a deeper understanding of the integration of ChatGPT into Math+CT lessons.

This Research to Practice Full Paper presents the development of a robotics-based learning environment using an educational design research approach. Contemporary teaching should prepare learners for everyday and working life, suggesting that this can only be achieved by implementing Digital Education from primary education onwards. Since computer science education is planned to be anchored in the Austrian primary school curriculum as an interdisciplinary competence development, research into teaching methods and content suitable for this area is becoming increasingly necessary. In this context, the transfer of innovations and didactic approaches into teaching is one of the biggest challenges. Introducing coding and robotics would be a possible strategy. Educational robotics provide access to real-world scenarios and offer age-appropriate possibilities to explore digital aspects of living and working environments. Combined with narrative methods, such as digital storytelling, problem-solving skills could be developed. Since the implementation of computer science in primary education requires practical and theoretical knowledge, an educational design approach is used that takes this aspect into account and allows close interaction between researchers and practitioners. This paper focuses on investigating a feasible and effective robotics-based learning environment for developing and supporting problem-solving skills at primary school using the learning and teaching method digital storytelling. Hence, the development of the learning environment and the didactic approach gained from qualitative results of interviews and observations from the first cycle of the research project are presented, providing plausible arguments for further implementing this robotics-based learning environment.