The impact of the interdisciplinary teaching approach-based algorithm and programming course curriculum on the students' academic achievement, their computational thinking perception and skill

This study attempts to examine the impact of the interdisciplinary teaching approach-based algorithm and programming course curriculum on the students' academic achievement, their computational thinking perception and skill, and to analyze the students' views on the interdisciplinary teaching approach. The study employed the embedded design, one of the mixed method designs. In this vein, the pre-test post-test control group design was used for the quantitative dimension of the study, while case study design for the qualitative dimension. The working group of the study held 40 associate degree students studying at a vocational school affiliated to a state university during the spring semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. This study utilized stratified and simple random sampling methods to determine the students in the experimental and control groups. In this regard, a total of 40 students, 20 in the experimental and 20 in the control group, were determined. Purposive and maximum diversity sampling methods were preferred for the selection of the students who were observed and interviewed. Thus, 3 students from both the experimental and control groups were chosen to make observations, and 12 students from the experimental group to interview. The algorithm and programming course curriculum developed based on the interdisciplinary teaching approach was administered to the experimental group students, and the current curriculum was applied to the control group for 9 weeks. This study deployed personal information form, academic achievement test, computational thinking skills scale, computational thinking test, interview form and observation form as data collection tools. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed in two different ways. Parametric and non-parametric test assumptions were initially examined during quantitative data analysis. Hence, independent samples t-test and one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were used to conduct parametric tests. Besides, qualitative data was analyzed through the descriptive analysis technique. Considering the quantitative results of the study, a significant difference was identified across the academic achievement test post-test scores of the groups in favor of the experimental group after controlling the pre-test scores. The results revealed that the interdisciplinary algorithm and programming course curriculum administered to the experimental group was more effective on academic achievement compared to the current curriculum applied to the control group. No significant difference was noted across the post-test scores once the pre-test scores of the computational thinking skills scale were controlled. A significant difference was found across the post-test scores in favour of the experimental group after controlling the pre-test scores of the computational thinking test. These results demonstrated that the interdisciplinary algorithm and programming course curriculum administered to the experimental group was more effective on computational thinking skills than the current curriculum applied to the control group. Upon analysing the qualitative results of the study, the students in the experimental group were observed to possess more computational thinking skills in general; moreover, the skills such as abstraction, algorithmic thinking, evaluation and generalization were observed more than those in the control group, yet the decomposition was the least observed skill. The analysis results of the interviews conducted to determine the views of the experimental group students, to whom the interdisciplinary teaching approach-based algorithm and programming course curriculum were administered, suggested that they had generally positive views which were gathered under nine themes. The majority of the students highlighted that the lessons were practical, entertaining, rich in content and associated to daily life. The most admirable activities were determined as the algorithm of first and emergency aid, codes of programming and programming language. The most challenging activities experienced by the students were expressed as the algorithm of first and emergency aid, finance of programming, mathematics of programming and codes of programming due to fear of making mistakes and lack of knowledge. With regard to the students' views on the shortcomings of interdisciplinary activities, the majority of the students implicated that there were not any shortcomings, while some of them stated the lack of sequencing, individual practice and knowledge. Students were of the view that they could use the student outcomes of this course in other lessons such as mathematics, foreign language, first and emergency aid, banking and finance, geographic information systems and remote sensing. In addition, all students indicated that other courses should be taught as in algorithms and programming courses since this course is rich in activity and practice. Students also mentioned that they gained awareness about the role of programming in technological tools in terms of the similarity of programming logic and improving their thinking skills. The majority of the students implied that this course has taken them on a reflective daily life. Last but not least, most of the students announced that the course may have positive reflections on their professional life in terms of integration, sequencing, systematization and time saving. The results suggested that the interdisciplinary teaching approach has positive reflections on the present study. Keywords: Interdisciplinary teaching approach, computational thinking, algorithm and programming, academic achievement, perception