Enhancing elementary school students' computational thinking and programming learning with graphic organizers

Computational thinking is widely recognized as an essential skill for adapting to the current era, with programming learning being the most effective means to develop it. It is recommended that computational thinking and learning programming be introduced as early as elementary school. However, elementary school students often possess limited prior knowledge of programming, posing challenges in their learning process. The graphic organizers (GOs) may serve as a bridge between students’ existing knowledge and new learning, facilitating a deeper processing of the overall information and thereby enhancing the learning process. This can be particularly advantageous for early-stage learners when grappling with difficult subjects. Consequently, this study employed GOs to assist elementary school students in their computational thinking and programming learning, employing a quasi-experiment design to evaluate their effectiveness. The results showed that although all students demonstrated awareness of applying computational thinking to solve problems, those exposed to GO-based instruction exhibited higher levels of computational thinking, programming skills, and flow experiences.