Narrative learning in coding activities: gender differences in middle school

Autor: Paolo Tosato, Monica Banzato
Jazyk: English<br />Spanish; Castilian<br />Italian<br />Portuguese
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Zdroj: Formazione & Insegnamento, Vol 15, Iss 1 (2017)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1973-4778
2279-7505
Popis: The recent introduction in Italy of Computational Thinking at the primary and secondary levels by the Educational Reform Act (October 2015) raises two critical issues: first, women are underrepresented in the computer field (OECD, 2015a; OECD, 2015b); second, girls lose their interest in computer sciences during adolescence (Gras-Velazquez et al., 2009). Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate gender differences in self-efficacy and engagement through educational narrative methods for learning programming at middle school, a period considered critical in the research literature (Bandura, 1997; Pajares & Schunk, 2001a; Pajares & Schunk, 2001b). This is generally due to a decline in the self-efficacy beliefs of girls in science. Although this is an exploratory study, the implications that emerged show the potential of narrative educational activities to serve as a “cognitive bridge” to engage and improve the self-efficacy of the girls in computational thinking activities.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals