Engaging Primary and Secondary School Students in Computer Science Through Computational Thinking Training

Abstract

AlthoughComputerSciencehasgrowntobecomeoneofthemosthighlydemandedprofessional careers, every year, only a small percentage of students choose a degree directly related to Computer Science. Perhaps the problem lies in the lack of information that society has about Computer Science itself, and particularly about the workcomputerscientists do. Noone doubtstheroleofMathematicsorLanguagesascoresubjects in every primary and secondary education syllabus; however, Computer Science plays a negligible role in most current syllabuses. Only in a few countries have governments paid special attention to content related to Computer Science and to learning to analyze and solve problems the way computer scientists do (Computational Thinking). In this article, we present Piens@ Computacion@ULLmente, a project that provides a methodology to promote Computer Science through Computational Thinking activities among primary and secondary education students. The results obtained from an exhaustive statistical analysis of the data we collected demonstrate that the perception of Computer Sciencethat pre-university students have can beimproved through specifictraining. Moreover, we can also confirm that the performance of pre-university students involving Computational Thinking skills is independent of gender, particularly at the primary education level.