The interest in computational thinking development at pre-university education stage is increasing. In this study, a meta-analysis was conducted to address two main objectives: (a) to analyze the effectiveness of empirical interventions in K-12 education for the development of Computational Thinking (CT); and (b) to identify and evaluate the variables that influences the effectiveness of the interventions. The analysis was especially focused on the intra-group effect sizes. Interventions show large effect size in the development of CT in the comparison between pre- and post-tests (g = 1.044). Among the different types of interventions, programming is the most efficient learning tool.

La Realidad Virtual está adquiriendo una gran relevancia en el ámbito educativo. Es necesario potenciar la formación de los futuros maestros en el uso de estas tecnologías emergentes que permiten mejorar los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje. Se presentan los resultados de un estudio sobre la motivación de 94 estudiantes del Grado de Maestro en Educación Primaria de la Facultad de Educación de Albacete (UCLM) que han participado en una actividad en la que, a través del uso de la Realidad Virtual como herramienta didáctica, han trabajado contenidos curriculares de Historia que deben enseñar en su futura práctica docente. Para medir la motivación se utilizó la adaptación del instrumento Instructional Material Motivational Survey (IMMS) de Keller (2010), elaborado por Loorbach, Peters, Karreman y Steehouder (2015). Los resultados muestran que tanto hombres como mujeres presentan una elevada motivación total (M = 5.16), sin diferencias significativas entre ellos en ninguna dimensión del modelo ARCS.

There is a debate about the way to introduce computational thinking (CT) in schools. Different proposals are on the table; these include the creation of new computational areas for developing CT, the introduction of CT in STEM areas, and the cross-curricular integration of CT in schools. There is also concern that no student should be left behind, independently of their economic situation. To this effect, an unplugged approach is the most cost-effective solution. In addition, this topic is interesting in the context of a pandemic situation that has prevented the sharing of materials between students. This study analyzes an unplugged cross-curricular introduction of CT in the Social Sciences area among sixth grade students. A group of 14 students was selected to carry out an unplugged intervention design—where they were required to program an imaginary robot on paper—in the Social Sciences area. Their CT development and academic results were compared to those of 31 students from the control group who continued attending regular classes. Results showed that an unplugged teaching style of CT in Social Sciences lessons significantly increased CT (p < 0.001) and with a large effect size (d = 1.305) without differences in students’ academic achievement. The findings show that children can potentially develop their CT in non-STEM lessons, learning the same curricular contents, and maintaining their academic results.

In modern society technology is widely used and, with the digitization of many services, this is an upward trend. Therefore, computational thinking (CT) is an increasingly important concept; an aspect that is being reflected on educational policies and the extracurricular offer of different countries. This study aims to look at the efficacy of private after-school extracurricular robotics activities, controlling fluid intelligence (Gf), a determining aspect in solving novel problems. A sample of 112 fifth-grade Spanish students was chosen, who completed two tests, the computational thinking test (CTt) (Román-González, 2016 Román-González, M. (2016). Códigoalfabetización y Pensamiento Computacional en Educación Primaria y Secundaria: Validación de un instrumento y evaluación de programas. Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (España). Escuela Internacional de Doctorado. Programa de Doctorado en Educación. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar] ) and the KBIT fluid intelligence subtest (Kaufman, 1990 Kaufman, A. S. (1990). Kaufman brief intelligence test: KBIT. American Guidance Service. [Google Scholar] ). The results showed a great influence of Gf on the prediction of CT and significant differences between the students that had not attended after-school extracurricular classes and those that had attended for two or more years. Thus, this study substantiates the effectiveness of private extracurricular classes in promoting CT in the long term. Given the importance of CT nowadays, legislators should consider to include CT in compulsory education because private extracurricular classes could promote inequity.