The effect of physical programming tool supported programming teaching on secondary school students' computational thinking skills and self-efficacy perceptions

This study aims to examine the effect of teaching text-based programming with the physical programming tool on secondary school students' computational thinking skills and self-efficacy perceptions. The study was carried out in a sequential explanatory design in the mixed research method type. The study group consisted of 85 secondary school students studying in a private secondary school in Ankara. Within the scope of the study, the micro: bit which is a physical programming tool was used to teach Python programming for 6 weeks. As data collection tools, the Self-Efficacy Perception Scale for Computational Thinking Skills, Bebras: International Challenge on Informatics and Computational Thinking Tasks, tests focused on programming tools, concepts and processes, and semi-structured interview questions were used. According to the findings obtained from the pre-test and post-test, a significant and positive difference was found in the computational thinking skills and the self-efficacy perceptions towards computational thinking skills of the students. As a result of the programming teaching, it was seen that the students learned the programming concepts and processes. While learning Python programming with the physical programming tool, students not only gained the skills to write appropriate syntax, test and debug but also learn programming concepts such as variable, conditional expression, loop and function. In the focus group interview held with the students, the students stated that they were motivated while learning Python programming with the physical programming tool and they wanted to do more programming activities. They also stated that they understand programming concepts more easily with the physical programming tool and that they can find errors more easily while programming. The majority of the students stated that they had problems using loops and lists while writing programs, but they did not have any difficulties while learning to program with the physical programming tool. As a result, it has been revealed that teaching programming with the physical programming tool has a positive effect on students' learning of programming concepts and processes.