Scratch, computational thinking, and grit: At the beginning, during, and after the COVID-19 Pandemic

OpenAlex · English

The Covid-19 pandemic has deeply affected the whole world. In order to continue education during the pandemic, emergency distance education applications were utilized. The purpose of the research is to evaluate how block-based programming affects computational thinking (CT) and grit at the beginning, during and after pandemic. The study used a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design. This sample was divided into three groups based on the stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic at which they were enrolled in a programming course: before the pandemic, during the pandemic, and after the pandemic. The participants are 104 teacher candidates in the Faculty of Education of a Turkish state university. As a result of the research, it is observed that block-based coding instruction has a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of computational thinking in the pre-pandemic and pandemic groups. The difference in this case has a moderate effect size. There was no significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores of the post-pandemic group. Comparing the groups revealed that the pre-pandemic and during pandemic groups had significantly higher median scores in computational thinking skills than the post-pandemic group. According to these results, it can be argued that the negative effects of the pandemic were seen in the post-pandemic group. The results of the short grit scale emphasize the importance of non-cognitive factors in distance education in the context of the consistency of interest dimension. Moreover, it indicates a significant and positive relationship between grit and computational thinking skills.