The effects of coding on childrens planning and inhibition skills Abstract   Computational thinking (CT) and the coding element of it are progressively entering in the primary school curriculum worldwide. Yet, little is known about the effects of these skills on childrenu0027s cognitive development. In a clusterrandomized controlled trial, we examined how 1stgrade childrenu0027s gains in coding skills that follow instructional intervention transfer to two important executive functions (EFs): planning and response inhibition. Onehundred seventynine (179) first graders from 5 schools and 10 class groups, with no prior experience of coding, were randomly assigned to an experimental (coding, 5 classes) or control (standard STEM, 5 classes) instructional condition. The experimental intervention involved 8xe2x80xafh of coding activities (two weekly lessons for 4 weeks), through the Code.org platform. Children in the control group were exposed to standard STEM instruction. Four coding tasks drawn from Code.org, two standardized planning tasks (Elithorn maze test and Tower of London, ToL, test) and two standardized response inhibition tasks (NEPSYII inhibition subtest and numerical Stroop), were used to assess childrenu0027s skills at the pretest and posttest (after the instructional intervention). To measure retention, the same skills were also assessed for 44 children from the experimental group 5 weeks from the posttest (follow up). The results show that practice with coding through Code.org not only improved measurably childrenu0027s ability to solve coding problems, but also their EFs, increasing the time children spent planning, their ability to solve standardized planning tasks, and to inhibit prepotent responses. Such findings add to the still limited literature on the cognitive effects of coding, deepening our understanding of the positive implications of introducing Computational Thinking early in the school curriculum.

Computational thinking through unplugged activities in early years of Primary Education Abstract   The inclusion of computational thinking (CT) in the classroom is something that the present and future society is demanding. However, this domain remains largely unexplored, especially in the first years of Primary Education. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether the inclusion of the socalled unplugged activities favours the development of CT in the students of the early years of Primary Education. To this end, a quasiexperimental study has been carried out to explore the eventual benefit of a mixed approach that combines both unplugged and pluggedin activities. In particular, 84xc2xa0secondgrade students took part in the experiment. Three questions were evaluated: the development of their CT skills, their motivation towards the proposed instruction, and the influence of studentsu0027 gender in the two previous areas. The intervention was designed on a selection of activities extracted from Code.org courses, and was divided into two phases, one in which one group worked with unplugged activities and the other with pluggedin activities, and a second where both groups worked with pluggedin activities. Analysing the three proposed questions through tests performed before, in between and after the instruction, it is concluded that the inclusion of unplugged activities in the instruction seems beneficial taking into account CT, motivation and gender.