Examination of pre-service teachers' computational thinking skills and self-efficacy in teaching

In this study, it was aimed to examine computational thinking skills and the perceptions of self-efficacy towards its teaching of pre-service teachers who participated in an education process in which games were developed in a block-based programming environment and lesson plans were prepared using these games. In the research, convergent paralel mixed method design was used. The research was conducted with 37 pre-service teachers who took the instructional technologies course in the fall semester of 2019. In the quantitative part of the study, a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was used, and the implementation process continued for 12 weeks. The implementation process was carried out in three stages. In the first stage, pre-service teachers gained awareness about the components of computational thinking skill, and established appications about algorithm writing and Scratch. In the second stage, pre-service teachers developed Scratch-based games related to their subject areas. In the third stage, they prepared lesson plans aimed at teaching computational thinking skills by using the games they developed. Computational thinking skills scale and self-efficacy scale for teaching computational thinking were applied as pre-test and post-test to pre-service teachers. The qualitative data of the study were collected through semi-structured focus group interviews and reflection questions answered by pre-service teachers in their collaborative groups. Paired sample t-test was used to analyze quantitative data. Qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. The quantitative findings of the study showed that, pre-service teachers' computational thinking skills and their self-efficacy perceptions towards teaching increased significantly. This increase is low effect for computational thinking skill while moderate effect for the perception of self-efficacy regarding the teaching of this skill. It has been concluded that the qualitative findings of the study support the quantitative findings. The pre-service teachers stated that their competences in computational thinking and teaching increased, and they intend to include this skill in their future teaching practices. In addition, they stated that the implementation process contributed to their professional knowledge, including technological and pedagogical knowledge. It was determined that the perceived usefulness of pre-service teachers regarding the learning and teaching of computational thinking were grouped under three themes: professional usefulness, usefulness for student and personal usefulness. Keywords: Computational thinking skill, self-efficacy in teaching computational thinking skills, block-based programming, lesson planning, pre-service teachers, Scratch