FACTORS THAT CAN AFFECT DIFFERENCES IN STUDENTS' COMPUTATIONAL THINKING

Abstract

In the era of technological development, researchers and educators, who live in advanced countries, have researched computational thinking, so that new generations can gain it as an essential skill. Realizing the importance of computational thinking, Vietnamese Educational Policy Makers also set it as one of the goals of our new education program. Applying computational thinking to Vietnamese education is still fresh and lacks local research; therefore, this study will explore our students’ computational thinking abilities as well as analyze and predict the factors that can affect differences in students’ abilities. We carried out surveys which had been built on Computational Thinking test (CTt) and Competent Computational Thinking test (cCTt) in 4 months and focused on two groups (7-9 years old and 10-15 years old) in 3 different provinces. When our new educational program is applied gradually, this study, which showed some controllable causes for students’ computational thinking, would be a useful reference for further studies to find suitable pedagogy methods and classroom instructions.  Finally, the paper brought out the differences in students’ computational thinking and illuminated their reasons.