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Grant support

Thanks to the participants, teachers and schools involved in the learning experiences. This work is co-funded by the Erasmus+ project CoTEDI, which is also co-financed by the European Union under the call-key action 2023-1-NL01-KA220-SCH-000152037 - OID E10207981.

Analysis of institutional authors

Martin-Barroso, EstefaniaAuthorZapata-Caceres, MariaAuthor

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Proceedings Paper

Improvement of Computational Thinking skills through unplugged activities in Upper Secondary Education

Publicated to: 11- - 2024-01-01 (), DOI: 10.1145/3677619.3678110

Authors: Benavides-Escola, Christian Andres; Martin-Barroso, Estefania; Zapata-Caceres, Maria; Roman-Gonzalez, Marcos

Affiliations

Univ Nacl Educ Distancia UNED, Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Rey Juan Carlos URJC, Madrid, Spain - Author

Abstract

The adoption of Computational Thinking (CT) in the educational worldwide curricula is progressively gaining importance from various perspectives. One particular approach, known as unplugged, does not require electronic devices and offers notable benefits as it is replicable and adaptable. Moreover, it serves to dismantle the misconception that computer science is exclusively confined to the digital realm. While both plugged and unplugged methodologies are recognized, further exploration of the unplugged approach is required, especially in Upper Secondary Education, where there is less evidence of its effectiveness. This paper presents a summary of a quasi-experimental study conducted with 11th grade students (approximately 16 years old) in a Spanish public high school. 57 students participated: 28 in the control group and 29 in the experimental group. The conducted research, based on a quantitative and experimental design, aimed to investigate the effectiveness of unplugged activities to improve CT abilities in Upper Secondary Education. The results indicated improved skills in the experimental group, suggesting the potential efficacy of unplugged methods in fostering CT abilities.

Keywords

Computational thinkingComputational thinking evaluationComputer science educationUnplugged activitiesUpper secondary educatioUpper secondary education

Quality index

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-06-23:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 6.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 6 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 2.2.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 3 (Altmetric).

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author () and Last Author ().

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been .