Development of Computational Thinking with unplugged music activities in different educational contexts

Abstract

Working on Computational Thinking in the school environment develops specific skills such as abstraction, algorithmic thinking, automation, among others. In this field, a growing research interest relates most educational proposals to the use of technologies. This paper analyses the development of Computational Thinking through unplugged activities in the field of Music. A total of 200 primary schoolchildren, aged 10-12 years old, from public schools participated in the study. Of these, 150 were allocated to the experimental group and 50 to the control group. Data were collected before and after the intervention. The Computational Thinking Test was used to measure computational thinking. Student’s t-test was used to compare possible differences between control and experimental groups. Repeated measures models were used to compare differences between pre- and post-intervention, in addition to considering moderation for different academic abilities, environment and ethno-cultural background. The results indicate that there are no mean differences at pre-test for any of the variables. After the intervention in the experimental group, the data indicate an increase in computational thinking in all students with different academic abilities, especially in the high ability group, and an outstanding development in students with learning difficulties, immigrants, and those from rural areas. The conclusions highlight the possibility of proposing educational strategies to develop computational thinking without using technology, and their effectiveness in groups with different psychosocial characteristics.