Developing Computational Thinking Skills through Embodied Dance Activities

Abstract

Objectives : There is currently no single accepted definition of Computational Thinking (CT), but abstraction, algorithmic thinking, problem solving and pattern recognition are often identified as four top skills with decomposition and spatial ability also being considered important. Physical activity has been linked to development of algorithmic thinking, visual processing and pattern recognition, while dance has been associated with ability in problem solving, visual-spatial manipulation, abstraction and pattern recognition. Dance notation has been linked to the development of skills in decomposition. This article investigates whether taking part in structured dance activities affects performance on CT tests. Participants : Fifty participants (33 girls, 17 boys) aged between 6 and 9 were recruited from schools in Scotland and out-of-school groups in Germany. Study Methods : The methods were influenced by Educational Design theory and adopted a mixed methods approach. It employed an explanatory sequential design with the aim of explaining quantitative results using qualitative methods and comprises three studies. Groups 1 and 2 used a pre-experimental design, while Group 3 used a quasi-experimental non-equivalent group design, which arbitrarily split the group in an intervention group and a control group to establish whether there was an observable change in performance on CT tasks after taking part in structured Scottish Country Dance (SCD) activities. Participants undertook the BCTt test as pre- and post-test; motivation was measured using versions of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI). Direct observation and teacher interviews provided qualitative information and were used to explore the findings. The intervention consisted of workshops that mapped physical dance and transcription activities to cognitive attributes identified as important for CT. Findings : A Related Samples Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test found a significant difference between the median marks for pre-test ( M = 18.70, SD = 4.21) and post-test ( M = 20.45, SD = 3.137) (n = 20, p = 0.007) in Group 1. In Group 2, a Paired Samples t -Test indicated that the post-test score ( M = 21.50, SD = 1.789) was significantly higher than the pre-test score ( M = 16.69, SD = 3.945), (t(15) = 5.189, p < 0.001). However, no differences were found between scores on the pre-test ( M = 20, SD = 2.00) and post-test ( M = 19.67, SD = 2.160), t(5) = 0.237, p = 0.822 in Group 3A or between the pre-test scores ( M = 13.75, SD = 5.898) and post-test ( M = 15.13, SD = 2.997), t(7) = 0.903, p = 0.397 in Group 3B. Participants in all studies were observed to engage well with the activities. Conclusions : Participants in Groups 1 and 2, who were taught by experienced SCD teachers in a classroom situation and had some prior familiarity with the dance genre, showed a significant improvement in their scores. The addition of related coding activities appears to strengthen this effect. The absence of significant results in Group 3 allows for some hypotheses about which aspects of the dance workshops may be affecting CT.

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