Colombian Elementary Students’ Performance and Perceptions of Computing Learning Activities with Scratch

In this paper we present a case study of 117 Colombian elementary grade students’ performance and perceptions of a learning activity aiming to promote computational thinking guided by the College Board’s CS Principles and Scratch. The lesson plan was designed by the teacher as part of a three-day teacher professional development workshop within an advanced topics course for a master degree in engineering. As part of the workshop, participants were invited to implement their designs in their own classrooms and, together with the researchers, conduct classroom action research. Workshop participants designed their own instruments and gathered data on students’ perceptions of the learning module and identified the level of achievement of the selected learning objective. Our research questions are: (a) what are students’ levels of achievement of the identified CS principle learning objective as evidenced by their performance on the design learning activity? And (b) what are students’ perceptions and engagement with the design learning activity? Student grades, the perceived usefulness, the appeal of the learning activity, and Scratch were considered as positive. Similarly, as part of an exit interview, the teacher participant highlighted the usefulness of Scratch software to implement the learning task guided by the CS principles and backwards design approaches. These results pose significant implications to integrate computing principles and procedures sooner and often into the K-6 curriculum.