An investigation of coding education practices in terms of primary school students' algorithmic thinking skills and students' opinions

The aim of this study is to examine the views of primary school fourth grade students on coding education given through the Scratch program by determining the students' skills in using the program and algorithmic thinking skills. The study was conducted with a nested mixed design. For this purpose, the findings obtained in the quantitative phase of the one-group research conducted in accordance with the experimental design were supported by taking the opinions of the students with the phenomenological design in the qualitative phase. In addition, opinions on the research process were obtained through student and researcher diaries. The study group of the research consists of 25 students attending the 4th grade in a primary school in the central district of Elazığ province in the 2023-2024 academic year. The data collection tools used in the study consisted of Algorithmic Thinking Skills Scale developed by the researcher, Semi-structured Interview Form, "Student Diaries, Scratch Programming Skills Checklists and Researcher Diary. According to the quantitative results of the study, a significant difference was found between the Algorithmic Thinking Skill Scale pretest and posttest results of the students in the experimental group. This shows that the Scratch program used in coding education has a significant effect on students' algorithmic thinking skills. According to the results obtained from the Scratch control lists, which are among the qualitative results of the research Dino-Dog Project, Ball Bouncing project, Star Catching project, Labyrinth project, Flying Cat project, Color Catching project, Wheel of Fortune project, Jumping from Obstacle project, it was seen that the students in the experimental group generally added the decor, characters and codes in the projects correctly. According to the student diaries, which are among the qualitative results of the study, students stated that they found the programming course and the projects done in the courses very entertaining in general, that they liked the Scratch program very much, that writing code was very fun and that they enjoyed doing the projects. It was also observed that the researcher diaries supported the results of the student diaries. According to the student opinions among the qualitative results of the study students stated that the Scratch program was generally very fun and that coding was exciting. The students stated that they liked the program because they could make games with the Scratch program, that they enjoyed creating projects, that they did not get bored and that they did not have difficulty using the program in general. Considering the quantitative and qualitative results obtained in this study, it can be suggested that coding education can be given to primary school students, Scratch program can be taught to primary school students, teachers can benefit from Scratch activities to increase students' interest and motivation towards the course, and the effects of coding education on other thinking skills can be examined.