Visual Programming Environments and Computational Thinking Performance of Fifth- and Sixth-Grade Students

Currently, many countries actively cultivate students to develop computational thinking ability. Many visual programming environments (VPEs) and physical robot courses have been integrated into computational thinking learning in the elementary education stage. This study explores the relationship between the programming learning environment (including VPE, physical robots, and no experience) and the computational thinking ability of higher-grade elementary school students of different genders. The results show that learning through VPE or physical robots can help students improve their computational thinking ability and that students learn better via physical robots. In addition, among the four dimensions of computational thinking ability, most students are weak in algorithm design. In terms of gender, no differences exist in computational thinking ability. Further analysis reveals that female students have better decomposition performance in VPE learning, while male students have better algorithm design performance.