Research Of Design-based STEM+C Teaching Approach On Elementary Students’ Computational Thinking

Computational thinking(CT)is an important skill in the current highly informationized intelligent era,and it is one of the essential skills for K-12 learners in addition to reading,writing and computing.At present,developed countries have successively taken CT as the core of national human resource training,and explored the theoretical framework and curriculum development of cultivating CT from elementary school.Since January 2018,China has officially taken CT as the core literacy of high school information technology discipline,and begun to focus on cultivation of CT,and gradually moved from secondary education to basic education.With the gradual advancement of the development of CT and the steady pace of the teaching reform,the traditional single-subject teaching knowledge integration of elementary schools in China is insufficient,and the students passively accept the current situation of learning has not been able to adapt to the cultivation of CT competence of integrating problem solving,creativity and other composite competences in the era of knowledge economy.At the same time,the traditional information technology course in elementary school mainly based on computer application learning ignores the real-life situation and does not pay attention to the integration of technology and other subject contents,so the CT loses its core value of solving complex problems.Therefore,the core of this study is to explore a teaching model that integrates multidisciplinary knowledge and focus on the real-life situation to facilitate the students’ compound CT competences.This research focuses on three specific issues to carry out theoretical and empirical research.First,how to cultivate students’ CT,and explore the theoretical framework and teaching model of cultivating students’ CT;Second,how to assess the CT of elementary school students;Third,how to effectively train the elementary school students’ CT,what kind of strategies need to be improved,how to improve CT,and whether or not it is effective after enactment.In order to answer the above questions,this study mainly employs the Educational design research(EDR)paradigm,and adopts the mixed research method combining qualitative and quantitative approaches to try to answer the following questions:One is answering the question of "how to build the theoretical framework and teaching model to develop the CT",the theoretical basis of research on CT,including multiple definition of CT,systematical evaluation and teaching model,also around the diverse design-based learning model,and the theory of STEM+C education to carry out the analysis and argumentation to construct theoretical framework based on design-based STEM+C theoretical framework and teaching model,and analyzed the practical problems in the elementary school and verified the necessity of enactment.Theoretical framework of design-based STEM+C is designed to solve the problem of three core,including what learners learn(what teachers teach),how students learn and how to iterate learning process(How teachers teach,how to iterate teaching process),and the effectiveness of student learning,the theoretical framework in the form of a four-layer ring,first layer is the subject content layer,the second is APT teaching design level,third is the C5 learning process layer,fourth is the learning objective layer.Through the design-based theoretical framework,the CT model and the optimal design mechanism are further discussed.Based on design-based STEM+C teaching model by iterative optimization,the phase is based on design-based learning(DBL),new teaching model to integrate DBL,then through three rounds of iteration,with APT model as an instructional design framework,through social interaction and multivariate assessment(A),multiple teaching strategies and pedagogy(P),and multivariate scaffold and technology(T),so as to get the final optimization model.After three rounds of iterative optimization,the study took design-based learning as the basic step,in which the practice of CT was integrated into each step of design-based learning and optimized the model with iteration.The second is to answer the question "how to evaluate CT" and explore the multidimensional tools for assessing CT,so as to carry out the multidimensional evaluation of CT based on competence and skills,cognition,and emotion.A qualitative and quantitative evaluation method is adopted.In the quantitative evaluation,Computational thinking test(CTt)is adopted to evaluate students’programming and computational thinking skills.The second is to use Bebras test to evaluate students’general CT skills.Computational thinking scale(CTS)self-report questionnaire was used to understand the learners’ self-perceived CT ability.The fourth is to collect emotional dimensions such as participation and self-efficacy.The fifth is to collect and evaluate the data with the method of experience sampling,and track the CT of learners in different situations in a timely and intensive manner,so as to ensure the authenticity,accuracy and effectiveness of the data.In addition,qualitative methods such as interviews and focus groups were used to collect data in combination with qualitative research methods,and case studies and grounded theory studies were used to better understand the CT ability and related emotional dimensions of learners.The third is to answer "how to optimize teaching model to calculate the thinking and verify its validity" problem,combining curriculum design and development of STEM subjects content,using the education design research methods(EDR)three rounds of iterative improvement using STEM+C teaching model based on design and further explore the specific strategies and need to be aware of problems in teaching.In the first stage of "identify the problem",in addition to the decomposition and ion of the problem,the generalization and evaluation of the problem were also added.In the design phase,parallel processing,problem decomposition and abstraction are added.In addition,in the prototyping stage and the iterative improvement stage,trial and error elimination are added for the debugging part.In addition,based on APT design framework,the teaching interaction and assessment,pedagogy and strategies,and technology ans scoffoldings in each stage of design-based STEM+C teaching model are improved and optimized.Then,the implementation status and promotion effect of design-based STEM+C were explored.In this process,the quantitative method of empirical sampling was used to combine with qualitative methods such as interview method and case study method to deeply explore the effect and improvement strategies of design-based STEM+C.Conclusions are as follows:one is based on the design of STEM+C in the natural classroom teaching situation significantly promote the learners’thinking skills and ability,participation and self-efficacy,shortening of the gender gap and help elementary school students,at first the girl thinking significantly less than men,through the study,the calculation of the boy and the girl thinking.At the same time,the teaching method can also help to narrow the gap in students’ initial ability,so that the students with learning difficulties can get a significant improvement,and finally they are basically the same as the excellent students.Secondly,using the experience sampling method,design-based STEM+C has different fluctuations at different stages.A.In the early stage of design,there is a significant decrease,which is due to the strangeness of learners at the beginning of cooperation,which tends to produce conflicts and reduce efficiency.With the intervention of teachers,learners begin to improve significantly at the later stage.The learners’ two highest stages of CT are the iterative perfection stage of prototyping and the final demonstration stage.Prototyping and iterative improvement are the most enjoyable and rewarding stages for learners,as well as the most difficult and reflective stages.Third,collaborative learning plays an extremely important role in design-based STEM+C.Collaboration is one of the most rewarding parts of learners,the most reflective part of learners,the most difficult part,and one of the most important ways to solve difficulties.Therefore,it is extremely important for teachers to intervene in collaboration.It is extremely important for teachers to train collaboration skills in advance,observe group collaboration conflicts in a timely manner,carry out collaborative intervention in a timely manner,and provide appropriate collaboration and cognitive scaffolds for collaborative problem solving.The innovation of this research lies in the following aspects:first,the teaching and learning theory of CT cultivation in the interdisciplinary field,and the STEM+C theoretical framework based on design were constructed,which enriched the teaching and learning theory in the field of basic education under the information environment;The second is to construct STEM+C teaching model and strategies based on design,and provide cases in the field of basic education under the information environment.Third,carry out an empirical study of design-based STEM+C to explore the implementation effect of learners’ CT.This teaching model and teaching strategy can guide teachers to better carry out STEM teaching.