New Entertainment Computing paper: "Supporting Teachers, Engaging Students: A Collaborative Model for K-12 Computing Education"
I’m excited to announce that our paper “Supporting Teachers, Engaging Students: A Collaborative Model for K-12 Computing Education” has been published in the Entertainment Computing journal!
The work shares our experience with the Batti il 5! national project, which aimed to strengthen computing skills in primary schools in the Mirafiori Sud district of Turin. This research addresses key challenges in integrating Computational Thinking (CT) into primary school curricula, such as teacher training and curriculum development.
Through the design and evaluation of an introductory coding course for 4th-grade students—where children were guided to create a simple Scratch video game—we explored how project-based learning and a collaborative approach involving experts, teachers, and high-school tutors can foster engaging and inclusive learning experiences.
The course utilized the StepByStep app to guide students through the game development process, making computational thinking concepts accessible and enjoyable for young learners. This approach demonstrated how technology can be used as a bridge to introduce complex computing concepts in an age-appropriate manner.
Furthermore, we conducted a set of co-design sessions with four teachers participating in the coding course, during which we asked them to reflect on the needs, feelings, and challenges they experienced. Specifically, we challenged teachers to redesign a new video game for the course in an effort to increase their involvement in the experimental activities.
An example of a co-designed project shows how teachers envisioned backgrounds and characters drawn by hand, along with a storytelling approach that helps students consolidate grammar topics, such as direct and reported speech. This demonstrates the power of collaborative design in creating educational content that resonates with both teachers and students.
We condensed all our findings into an educational model that allows K-12 teachers and computing experts to collaborate in the design and implementation of computing education courses that address CT engagingly, inclusively, and supportively. This model provides a framework for scaling computational thinking education while ensuring that it remains grounded in the practical needs and experiences of classroom teachers.
This work represents an important contribution to the field of computing education, showing how collaborative approaches can bridge the gap between educational research and classroom practice, ultimately benefiting both teachers and students in their journey toward computational literacy.