{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,1]],"date-time":"2026-04-01T22:49:38Z","timestamp":1775083778456,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":39,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,10,1]],"date-time":"2019-10-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1569888000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003407","name":"Ministero dell\u2019Istruzione, dell\u2019Universit\u00e0 e della Ricerca","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["ACPR14T4_00157"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ACPR14T4_00157"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003407","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Informatics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Research has shown that educational robotics can be an effective tool to increase students\u2019 acquisition of knowledge in the subjects of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and promote, at the same time, a progression in the development of computational thinking (CT) skills in K\u201312 (kindergarten to 12th grade) education. Within this research field, the present study first sought to assess the effect of a robotics laboratory on the acquisition of CT-related skills in primary school children. The study also aimed to compare the magnitude of the effect of the laboratory across third- and fourth-grade students. For the purpose of the study, a quasi-experimental post-test-only design was adopted, and a group of 51 students, from third- and fourth-grade classrooms, participating in the robotics laboratories, were compared to a control group of 32 students from classrooms of the same grades. A set of Bebras tasks was selected as an overall measure of CT skills and was administered to children in both the intervention and control groups. Overall, the results showed that programming robotics artefacts may exert a positive impact on students\u2019 learning of computational thinking skills. Moreover, the effect of the intervention was found to be greater among third-grade children.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/informatics6040043","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,10,1]],"date-time":"2019-10-01T11:11:16Z","timestamp":1569928276000},"page":"43","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":62,"title":["Educational Robotics in Primary School: Measuring the Development of Computational Thinking Skills with the Bebras Tasks"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"6","author":[{"given":"Giuseppe","family":"Chiazzese","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Istituto per le Tecnologie Didattiche, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Palermo 90146, Italy"}]},{"given":"Marco","family":"Arrigo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Istituto per le Tecnologie Didattiche, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Palermo 90146, Italy"}]},{"given":"Antonella","family":"Chifari","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Istituto per le Tecnologie Didattiche, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Palermo 90146, Italy"}]},{"given":"Violetta","family":"Lonati","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Dipartimento di Informatica, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Milano, Milano 20112, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0389-2804","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Crispino","family":"Tosto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Istituto per le Tecnologie Didattiche, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Palermo 90146, Italy"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,10,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"393","article-title":"Situated cognition and problem-based learning: Implications for learning and instruction with technology","volume":"13","author":"Hung","year":"2002","journal-title":"J. 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