A REVIEW OF COMPUTATIONAL THINKING: FOCUS ON SCIENCE EDUCATION

Abstract

With the onset of the digital age, computational thinking skills have entered our lives. Computational thinking skills are not limited to computers, but are integrated into every interdisciplinary field to maximize learning. In this research, a systematic review is prepared to examine the studies addressing computational thinking skills in science education. In this context, inclusion and exclusion criteria were taken into consideration in "Springer", "Web of Science", "Ebscohost/Eric", "Science Direct" databases. In the studies conducted, it is observed that the study groups are generally secondary school (K12) level students and teachers. In many studies in this field, students are given digital programming training. As a result of the trainings, students are observed to develop simulations, videos and models. In the results observed in the teachers, trainings on the focus of computational thinking on science education were given and examples of applications were made. When the researches are examined, it is observed that science education, STEM, programming, coding, simulation, modeling, computational thinking are intertwined. One of the important findings of the research is that while there are science education studies in which computational thinking is added with preschool teachers, there are no studies with preschool students.