The relationship between 8th grade students' computational thinking skills and their attitudes and achievements towards mathematics

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between 8th grade students' computational thinking skills and their attitudes towards mathematics and mathematical achievement. Today, computational thinking (CC) skill stands out as a basic 21st century skill that includes mental processes such as problem solving, algorithm design, modeling, abstraction, pattern recognition, and generalization. The study group consisted of 420 eighth grade students studying in 12 different middle schools in the provincial center of Kastamonu in the 2023-2024 academic year. Convenience sampling method was used in the sample selection and the relational screening model, which is one of the quantitative research methods, was used in the study. The data of the study were obtained from the Attitude Towards Mathematics Scale for Middle School Students developed by Yáñez-Marquina and Villardón-Gallego (2016) and adapted into Turkish by Şen (2019), and the Tsai et al. (2021) and adapted to Turkish by Karalar and Alpaslan (2021), and the Mathematics Computational Thinking Achievement Test developed by the researchers for this study. According to the results of the research, it was determined that 8th grade students' computational thinking skills and attitudes towards mathematics were at a moderate level, while their mathematics achievement was at a low level. A moderate positive and significant relationship (r = 0.413) was determined between the students' computational thinking skills and mathematics achievement scores; a moderate positive and significant relationship (r = 0.380) was also determined between the students' mathematics achievement and their attitudes towards mathematics. A weak positive and significant relationship (r = 0.220) was found between the students' mathematics achievement and their attitudes towards mathematics. As a result, significant relationships were found between 8th grade students' computational thinking skills and both their mathematics achievement and their attitudes towards mathematics. Based on these findings, it is recommended that activities focused on computational thinking skills be included in educational environments and that efforts be focused on integrating these skills into mathematics instruction. The study also recommends the design and implementation of computational thinking-based professional development programs for teachers. KEYWORDS: Computational Thinking, Attitudes Toward Mathematics, Mathematics Achievement, Field-Independent Computational Thinking, Eighth Grade