ENHANCING COMPUTATIONAL THINKING SKILLS AND TECHNOLOGICAL SELF-EFFICACY OF 4TH GRADE STUDENTS THROUGH PRACTICE ACTIVITIES FOR CREATING ANIMATED STORY ON SCRATCH USING PEER ASSISTED LEARNING STRATEGY

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to 1) develop an effective practice activities for creating animated story on Scratch using peer assisted learning strategy, 2) investigate an effect of instruction using practice activities on computational thinking skills and technological self-efficacy, and 3) explore students’ satisfaction toward instruction using that practice activities. Samples consisted of 41 fourth grade students, which were divided by cluster sampling technique into 2 groups: an experimental group that learned through developed practice activities, and a comparison group that used the conventional teaching method, comprised of 20 and 21 students respectively. Both groups were assessed a pre-test and post-test, and studied involving the Scratch programming for 8 weeks, two hours a week. Research instruments were practice activities for creating animated story on Scratch using peer-assisted learning strategy, Scratch learning achievement test, computational thinking skill test, technological self-efficacy questionnaire, and satisfaction questionnaire toward instruction using developed practice activities. The data were analyzed using Mean, Standard Deviation, Wilcoxon Match-Pairs Signed Rank Test, and Mann-Whitney U Test. The findings revealed that practice activities showed an efficiency ratio of 1.46, met the Meguigans criterion, with effectiveness index of .8148. Posttest scores of computational thinking skills and technological self-efficacy of experimental group were statistical significantly higher than pretest scores at .01 and .05 level, respectively, and had more improvement than those of comparison group at .01 significant level. In addition, the overall satisfaction of experimental group students was found at a high level.