The importance of software education in the field of elementary school education is increasing day by day. There have been several attempts related to software education, but a variety of problems have been encountered in the current context. First, there is a shortage of software training specialists. Second, there is a lack of materials for software education. Third, there is a shortage of software training hours.
In order to solve the above problem, a creative experience activity program based on the Bebras challenge was developed for the cultivation of computational thinking skills of elementary learners.
The Bebras challenge can be used to address some of the issues outlined with obvious advantages. No specialized or prior knowledge is required enabling anyone who can read the problems to learn the topics covered in informatics, including computational thinking. Similarly, no special software or teaching aids are required. The Bebras Challenge, which is based on CBT(Computer Based Testing), is a competition that several students can participate in. Additionally, it can be used as a tool to measure computational thinking ability and has been shown to improve students' motivation to learn.
In the current elementary school curriculum, 17 sessions of software education are assigned to the practical subjects of grades 5-6. This number is insufficient even compared to cases in other countries. Particularly that the age at which software education is implemented is notably later than in many foreign countries, with introduction from infancy or lower grades of elementary school.
Therefore, creative experience time was used to secure the insufficient number of hours for software education and to conduct software education in the lower grades of elementary school. Creative experience activities are activities that complement the subjects presented in the 2015 revised curriculum. It is a time for student autonomy based on various themes and operated according to the characteristics of the class. In fact, creative experience time is being used for software education in the field.
The Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation (ADDIE) model was used for this study, and conducted with 10 low-grade elementary school students at a school where the researcher is employed. Using creative experiential activities, a 10-hour program was developed and its effectiveness verified. An experiment was designed to examine the changes in students' computing thinking ability as well as their computer learning attitude and learning motivation. As a tool to measure computational thinking, the Bebras Computing Challenge was used. The test was conducted twice, once before and after, and the SPSS statistical program used to analyze the changes in the test results.
The students' computational thinking ability showed a significant change in general, however there was no statistically significant change in the computer learning attitude and learning motivation. Despite this, the personal changes of the second year students and some students were sufficiently confirmed through the interview with the homeroom teacher.
Through this study, changes in computational thinking ability, computer learning attitude, and learning motivation were observed as a creative experiential activity program using the Bebras Challenge. This study was aimed at lower grade students, whose individual levels varied greatly, and the pattern of change also notably different. Through future research, it is necessary to develop a program using the Bebras Challenge as a study targeting a large number of students. In addition, it is necessary to develop and distribute a software education program that is easy to apply in the school education field.