Laboratory for learning 21st century skills: training paths for pre-service primary school teachers using Scratch
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Abstract
Computational Thinking (CT) is a key skill of the 21st century for everyone as it fosters the acquisition of new ways of thinking, communicating and expressing ideas, as well as new ways of taking part in the social life of a community. Several countries have launched specific policies for the introduction of computational thinking and programming in different educational contexts. Consequently, coding courses for in-service teachers have been run but, to the best of our knowledge, marginal attention has been devoted to the acquisition of coding skills in pre-service teachers. In this paper, we report the results of a coding laboratory that involved 141 future teachers. Following precise guidelines and a specific training methodology, novice programmers working in groups developed 40 educational projects using Scratch software. Results have showed that most of the participants achieved a medium-high skill level, applying appropriate planning and coding techniques for the exploitation of educational contents.
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