Avcı Canan, Deniz Mine Nur
Faculty of Education, Department of Early Childhood Education, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun, Turkey.
Educ Inf Technol (Dordr). 2022;27(8):11689-11713. doi: 10.1007/s10639-022-11078-5. Epub 2022 May 19.
Computational thinking (CT) is considered a group of problem-solving skills that the next generations are expected to possess. The most efficient way to make them acquire these skills is to incorporate CT into K-12 education. To this end, various education programs have been designed to improve teachers' and prospective teachers' competence in CT. Such programs designing educational experiences based on teachers' and prospective teachers' preexisting opinions and self-efficacy perceptions about CT could achieve better results. Although the acquisition of CT skills has been suggested to start early on, these beliefs of early childhood teachers and prospective teachers have been underexplored. Therefore, this exploratory study aims to examine early childhood teachers' and prospective teachers' preconceptions and self-efficacy about CT. The study was conducted with 63 teachers and 78 prospective teachers in Turkey. Data were collected via an online survey in the spring of the 2020-2021 academic year. The preconceptions were assessed using a structured questionnaire, while the CT self-efficacy was measured with the . The findings showed similarities between teachers and prospective teachers in the preconceptions of CT. Both of them most strongly associated CT with logical thinking, problem-solving, using algorithms, coding/programming, doing mathematics, using technology in teaching, and using computers. Yet, teachers reported stronger associations between CT and logical thinking, using algorithms, and coding/programming. Furthermore, teachers' self-efficacy perceptions in CT were significantly higher. The study findings provide some needed information to design professional development programs aiming to enhance CT practices in early education settings.
计算思维（CT）被认为是下一代应具备的一组解决问题的技能。让他们获得这些技能的最有效方法是将计算思维融入从幼儿园到12年级的基础教育（K-12教育）。为此，已经设计了各种教育项目来提高教师和未来教师的计算思维能力。此类基于教师和未来教师对计算思维已有的看法和自我效能感来设计教育体验的项目可能会取得更好的效果。尽管有人建议尽早开始培养计算思维技能，但幼儿教师和未来教师的这些观念尚未得到充分探索。因此，这项探索性研究旨在考察幼儿教师和未来教师对计算思维的先入之见和自我效能感。该研究在土耳其对63名教师和78名未来教师进行。数据是在2020-2021学年春季通过在线调查收集的。先入之见通过一份结构化问卷进行评估，而计算思维自我效能则用……来衡量。研究结果表明，教师和未来教师在计算思维的先入之见方面存在相似之处。他们都最强烈地将计算思维与逻辑思维、解决问题、使用算法、编码/编程、做数学、在教学中使用技术以及使用计算机联系起来。然而，教师报告说计算思维与逻辑思维、使用算法和编码/编程之间的联系更强。此外，教师在计算思维方面的自我效能感明显更高。研究结果为设计旨在加强早期教育环境中计算思维实践的专业发展项目提供了一些所需信息。
