Understanding students’ social interactions during making activities designed to promote computational thinking

We examine elementary and middle school students social interactions while engaged in making activities designed to promote computational thinking (CT). Participants include 52 students in grades five, six, seven and eight working in 17 different groups in three different schools in the Northeast. Students solved CT challenges introduced by their teachers during a series of lessons in their classroom or school makerspace. Prior to the CT challenges, teachers participated in summer professional development focused on developing lessons aligning disciplinary content with CT competencies and practices. Co-ACT, an observation rubric that measures CT during collaborative problem solving, and semi-structured interviews were used to investigate students proficiency with and perspectives toward peer interactions and communication. The majority of participants interacted and communicated with peers at an acceptable or proficient level and students perceived their social interactions as positive. Findings also implied educators might find ways to increase self-monitoring and equitable participation.