Investigation of Variables Related to Computational Thinking Self-Efficacy Level in Middle School Students: Are Demographic Variables, Academic Success, or Programming-Related Variables More Important?

Introduction

Computational thinking (CT) is one of the often-mentioned concepts today. This concept does not have an agreed universal description (Lockwood & Mooney, 2017; Moreno-León, Román-González, & Robles, 2018; Yildiz-Durak & Saritepeci, 2018). Accordingly, it is observed that the scale tools necessary for CT’s scopes, development and scaling have a diverse range (Zhang & Nouri, 2019). While Papert (1980) explained CT within context of math education, he emphasized application of children’s procedural thinking by way of computer programming. Wing (2006) argued that for everyone CT is a skill which should be developed, and CT is needed to be regarded as a basic skill not only in computer programming processes, but also in every action involving analytical ability of human. According to Durak (2020), content of CT is not limited to the problem-solving processes in human minds. CT includes all of computing processes (Hsu, Chang, & Hung, 2018).

Development of CT skills via programming has an important place, particularly at K-12, for enabling of 21st century skills (Wong & Cheung, 2018). Even at some resources CT is handled as the skill of 21st century. However, it is important to detect at which learning level and with which variables CT is in relation with. Thus, according to Wing (2006), contribution of the knowledge taught to children during the education given at early ages to problem-solving process, how to apply CT skills and how to make logical analysis should be taught as well. Children’s comprehension of CT skills is utilized for turning a problem into a easy-to-understand problem by expressing it with their own description, for solving problems with a mood similar to computer scientist when we encounter IT problems, for designing systems and turning problem’s solution process into a thinking system which can be understood by people (ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) & CSTA(Computer Science Teachers Association), 2011; Wing, 2006; Durak, 2020). Therefore, by solving the problems in different fields via CT skills, students can be enabled to be individuals who are able to solve the problems they will encounter in information society through current technologies, academically successful and life-long learners (Gülbahar, Kert, & Kalelioğlu, 2019).