Examination of computational thinking skill levels of Social studies teacher candidates

This research aims to examine how Computational Thinking (CT) skills of first, second, third and fourth grade students who study in the Department of Social Studies Teaching can give different results under various factors such as: "gender, grade, success level, level of income, educational level of each parent, settlement areas, number of monthly reading, the status of owning a computer, the status of the Internet access at home; how long they go online in a day, the main purpose of the Internet use and the status of following technological developments. There are in total 252 students -171 women and 81 men- from the first semester of 2021-2022 academic year in the study group of this research: 70 of them are freshmen, 52 of them are sophomores, 61 of them are juniors and 69 of them are seniors. Survey Method which is one of the quantitive methods is used in this research. "Computational Thinking Skill Scale" which is developed by Dolmacı and Akhan (2020) is used as data collection tool. The data obtained from the measurement tool is analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The results show that Social Studies Teaching students' avarage points concerning CT skill levels and sub-dimensions are high. When sub-dimensions of CT skills of prospective teachers are analyzed in detail, it is seen that the highest avarage point is in the section of using a computer ability while the lowest avarage point is in the section of algorithmic-analytical thinking skill. When it is analyzed how various factors make differences, it is determined that gender, educational level of father, settlement area and monthly reading number factors do not make significant differences while such factors as owning a computer, having Internet access at home and following technological developments make important differences. It is determined that grade level and CT skill level are directly proportional which means fourth grade students' CT skill level is higher than first grade students'. Additionally, success level and CT skill level increase in direct proportion. On the other hand, it is seen that the prospective teachers who have high level of income and also the ones whose mothers are highly educated are more advantageousthan the others. Lastly, it is determined that the ones who use the Internet for research or homework have higher creative problem solving skill points, which is one of the sub-dimensions of CT, than the ones who use the Internet for social media. Key Words: Social Studies, Computational Thinking, Prospecpective Teachers