Promoting children's computational thinking: A quasi-experimental study of web-mediated parent education

Background: Computational thinking (CT) has become a crucial skill for individuals in the 21st century, and while more educators are starting to recognize the importance of CT education, there is still a lack of research on how to teach young children CT, particularly outside of traditional school settings. 

Objectives: To fill the gap in knowledge, we aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a web-based parent education program on improving children's CT skills. Additionally, we sought to determine if children's age, gender and family socioeconomic status had any impact on the development of CT skills. 

Methods: We selected 86 adult–child pairs in the K3 age group to participate in a 4-week intervention program using a quasi-experimental approach. 

Results: After 4 weeks, children in the intervention group had improved their CT skills more than their peers in the control group. This shows that the intervention was successful in enhancing children's CT skills. Age had a moderating effect on CT enhancement, with older children showing a more significant improvement than younger children. However, children's gender and family socioeconomic status did not have any moderating effects. 

Conclusions: These results demonstrate that CT education can be effectively implemented in the home setting through web-mediated parent education. Encouraging the use of unplugged CT activities at home can aid children in acquiring CT skills. Copyright © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.