{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,27]],"date-time":"2026-01-27T10:40:09Z","timestamp":1769510409956,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":62,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,5,26]],"date-time":"2023-05-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1685059200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Spanish Ministry of Universities \u201cJos\u00e9 Castillejo\u201d Program for Mobility Stays Abroad for Young Doctors","award":["CAS21\/00413"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CAS21\/00413"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Computers"],"abstract":"<jats:p>There is a growing interest in finding new ways to address the difficult task of introducing programming to secondary students for the first time to improve students\u2019 computational thinking (CT) skills. Therefore, extensive research is required in this field. Worldwide, new ways to address this difficult task have been developed: visual execution environments and approaches by text programming or visual programming are among the most popular. This paper addresses the complex task by using a visual execution environment (VEE) to introduce the first programming concepts that should be covered in any introductory programming course. These concepts include variables, input and output, conditionals, loops, arrays, functions, and files. This study explores two approaches to achieve this goal: visual programming (using Scratch) and text programming (using Java) to improve CT. Additionally, it proposes an AI recommendation model into the VEE to further improve the effectiveness of developing CT among secondary education students. This integrated model combines the capabilities of an AI learning system module and a personalized learning module to better address the task at hand. To pursue this task, an experiment has been carried out among 23 preservice secondary teachers\u2019 students in two universities, one in Madrid, Spain, and the other in Galway, Ireland. The overall results showed a significant improvement in the Scratch group. However, when analyzing the results based on specific programming concepts, significance was observed only in the Scratch group, specifically for the Loop concept.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/computers12060113","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,5,27]],"date-time":"2023-05-27T16:10:53Z","timestamp":1685203853000},"page":"113","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Prototype of a Recommendation Model with Artificial Intelligence for Computational Thinking Improvement of Secondary Education Students"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Raquel","family":"Hij\u00f3n-Neira","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Computer Science Department, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28032 Madrid, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9778-5569","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cornelia","family":"Connolly","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Education, National University of Ireland Galway, H91 TK33 Galway, Ireland"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2447-8239","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Celeste","family":"Pizarro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Applied Mathematics Department, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28032 Madrid, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3390-0251","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Diana","family":"P\u00e9rez-Mar\u00edn","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Computer Science Department, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28032 Madrid, Spain"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,5,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1202","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compedu.2011.01.002","article-title":"Modelling programming performance: Beyond the influence of learner characteristics","volume":"57","author":"Lau","year":"2011","journal-title":"Comput. 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