Investigation of interactive learning environment in terms of cognitive and affective variables in the process of gaining computational thinking skills

This research covers the application and evaluation process of an interactive learning environment designed to develop computational thinking skills and programming logic. To put it more clearly, the main objectives of the study are to examine whether the interactive learning environment used to support students' computational thinking skills has an effect on students' learning outcomes in the context of computational thinking, digital literacy and problem-solving skills, and to obtain student and teacher opinions about the learning environment and process. For the determined purpose of the study, a nine-week study was conducted with 302 fifth and sixth grade secondary school students. In the mixed study in the experimental design type, the pre-test post-test method was taken as the basis. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed for the validity and reliability parts of the study. The data obtained from the scales used in the quantitative dimension of the study and the interactive learning environment application were examined both in terms of demographic information and the relationship of the variables with each other. In the qualitative dimension of the study, teacher interviews and focus group interviews were applied. When the findings obtained from the study are examined, it is seen that age is an important determinant factor for the assessment of CT skills, but there is no effect of the gender variable, CT skills of the students increase in parallel with their ICT level, students who have a computer or tablet may have higher CT skill scores, students who use a tablet or computer in every day may have higher CT skill scores, and there is a high level of relationship between CT and digital literacy skills. In addition, it was concluded that the students generally found the applications in the interactive learning environment useful and had fun while applying them. Finally, in the teacher interview, it was pointed out that the application supports students' high-level thinking skills, but that student-student and student-teacher interaction should be supported in the learning environment.