Category: Types of Evidence

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K-12 Education Programme Evaluation

Gender Disparity in Computational Thinking Pedagogy and Assessment: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis

Gender disparities in computational thinking (CT) education are widely acknowledged, but few meta-analyses have investigated how particular instructional approaches and assessment settings shape these differences. To address this research gap, Liu et al. (2025) conducted a meta-analysis of 53 empirical studies, covering 100 effect sizes and a total sample of 15,454 participants, to examine the overall magnitude of gender differences in CT education and the factors that may shape them. The findings show a small but statistically significant overall gender difference (g = 0.106, 95% CI [0.024, 0.188], p < .05), suggesting a slight advantage for males.

Regarding moderation effects, neither general study features (e.g., publication type, geographic region, and educational level) nor CT assessment contexts (e.g., the instrument used and the learning outcome measured) significantly altered the effect sizes. In contrast, pedagogical approaches did matter: technology-integrated strategies such as mixed and plugged approaches were linked to larger gender gaps favoring boys, whereas unplugged approaches tended to narrow the gap and sometimes even shifted the advantage toward girls. In terms of assessment, gender differences were not significant when CT concepts were measured, but they became significant when outcomes involved authentic practices (such as programming tasks) and identity-related dimensions (such as motivation, learning interest, and self-efficacy).

The results highlight clear implications for improving equity in CT education. Support should start early in K–12, with a particular focus on developing students’ CT practices and perspectives so that small gender gaps do not become persistent over time. Unplugged activities can serve as a low-barrier entry point, strengthening basic understanding and confidence, especially for girls. In addition, technology use should be introduced progressively: when digital and AI tools are scaffolded within supportive, culturally relevant learning settings, students may feel less anxious about technology and experience more inclusive participation.

 

Source (Open Access): Liu, S., Dai, Y., Ng, O. L., & Cai, Z. (2025). Gender Disparity in Computational Thinking Pedagogy and Assessment: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 37(4), 114.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-025-10095-3… Read the rest

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Primary School Education Secondary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

The Relationship Between Teachers’ Character Virtues, Engagement, and Well-Being

Angelini and colleagues employed a cross-sectional survey design combined with path analysis to examine how three teacher character virtues—caring, inquisitiveness, and self-control—influence teachers’ work engagement and overall well-being, and to further test the mediating roles of burnout and teacher self-efficacy. The study involved 339 in-service teachers in Italy from both primary and secondary education, and collected data on character virtues, burnout, self-efficacy, work engagement, and psychological well-being to examine both direct and indirect relationships among these variables.

The results showed that the three character virtues exerted significant overall positive effects on teachers’ engagement and well-being. Correlational analyses indicated that inquisitiveness, caring, and self-control were all positively associated with self-efficacy, work engagement, and well-being, and negatively associated with burnout. Path analysis further revealed that inquisitiveness and self-control significantly reduced burnout (β = –.142, p < .05; β = –.235, p < .001, respectively) and enhanced teacher self-efficacy (β = .206, p < .01; β = .191, p < .01). Caring, by contrast, mainly influenced outcomes through increasing self-efficacy (β = .171, p < .01) and did not directly reduce burnout. Burnout had strong negative effects on work engagement (β = –.528, p < .001) and well-being (β = –.324, p < .001), whereas self-efficacy significantly increased engagement (β = .212, p < .001) and well-being (β = .219, p < .001), highlighting their central mediating roles in the model. Overall, the model explained 35.6% of the variance in work engagement and 45.7% of the variance in well-being.

Notably, the mechanisms through which different character virtues operated were not identical. Inquisitiveness had direct effects on both work engagement (β = .095, p < .05) and well-being (β = .122, p < .05), as well as significant indirect effects through burnout and self-efficacy. Caring primarily affected well-being (β = .184, p < .001), with its influence on work engagement largely mediated by self-efficacy. Self-control did not directly predict engagement or well-being, but indirectly promoted both outcomes by reducing burnout and enhancing self-efficacy. These findings suggest that teacher character virtues influence professional functioning through multiple psychological and occupational pathways rather than a single uniform mechanism.

Overall, this study demonstrates that teachers’ character virtues constitute important personal resources for fostering professional engagement and psychological well-being, with burnout and self-efficacy serving as key mechanisms linking character to well-being. The authors emphasize that teacher well-being and burnout should be viewed as two ends of the same continuum, and recommend that future teacher support and professional development programs incorporate character-based interventions to simultaneously reduce burnout risk and enhance teachers’ professional vitality and overall well-being.

Source (Open Access): Angelini, G., Mamprin, C., Buonomo, I., Benevene, P., & Fiorilli, C. (2026). Virtues, engagement, and well-being in teachers: Associations with burnout and self-efficacy in a path analysis model. Teaching and Teacher Education, 169, 105284.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2025.105284… Read the rest

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Kindergarten Programme Evaluation

The effect of robot programming versus unplugged programming on computational thinking and executive functions in preschool children: a randomized controlled trial

A recent study investigated whether robot programming offers added benefits over unplugged programming for developing preschoolers’ computational thinking (CT) and executive functions (EFs), given limited comparative evidence in early childhood contexts.

The authors conducted a randomized controlled trial with 198 children aged 5 to 6 from one public kindergarten in China. Children were randomly assigned to a robot programming group using the Matatalab kit (n = 66), an unplugged programming group using paper and pencil based activities (n = 66), or a business as usual control group engaging in conventional kindergarten activities (n = 66). The intervention lasted 12 weeks, with one 60 minute session per week. CT was assessed with TechCheck K (15 items; Cronbach’s alpha = 0.79 in this study), and EFs were measured with the Early Year Toolbox tasks assessing inhibition (Go/No-Go), working memory (Mr. Ant), and cognitive flexibility (Card Sorting). Measures were administered at baseline, week 6, and week 12, and effects were analysed using linear mixed effects models; implementation fidelity was reported as 97 percent adherence.

Results showed that both robot programming and unplugged programming groups outperformed the control group on CT over time, and the robot programming group showed stronger CT gains than the unplugged group by week 12. For EFs, the robot programming group outperformed both the unplugged programming and control groups over time on inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility; within group analyses indicated significant improvements after 12 weeks only in the robot programming group for these EF outcomes. Most children in the robot programming group reported positive perceptions of programmable robots, including ease of use (79%), perceived usefulness (91%), technology anxiety (91%), satisfaction (94%), attitude (82%), and intention to continue use (85%).

The study suggests that while both modalities can support preschoolers’ CT, robot programming may produce more substantial and sustained benefits, particularly for EFs. The authors recommend further research with more diverse samples, longer follow up, mixed quantitative and qualitative evidence, and continued validation of EF measures and programming tools.

 

Source (Open Access): Zhang, X., Chen, Y., Hu, L., Hwang, G. J., & Tu, Y. F. (2025). Developing preschool children’s computational thinking and executive functions: unplugged vs. robot programming activities. International Journal of STEM Education, 12(1), 10.

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-024-00525-z… Read the rest

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Social and Motivational Outcomes

Teacher professional development of digital pedagogy for inclusive education in post-pandemic era

Shi and colleagues adopted a sequential mixed-methods design to examine how teachers’ digital teaching competence and digital self-efficacy influence their work engagement and emotional exhaustion in inclusive education settings. The first phase surveyed 478 teachers and used structural equation modeling to test the relationships among four core constructs. This was followed by a two-week professional development experiment based on the TPACK framework to evaluate whether strengthening teachers’ digital competence could effectively enhance their professional well-being.

The findings showed that teachers’ digital teaching competence was a strong predictor of self-efficacy (β = .848, p < .001), and significantly increased work engagement (β = .455, p < .001) while reducing emotional exhaustion (β = –.339, p < .001). Self-efficacy also significantly improved engagement (β = .300, p < .001) and reduced exhaustion (β = –.390, p < .001), indicating a chain mechanism from digital teaching competence → self-efficacy → teacher well-being.

The professional development experiment further supported these results. Compared to the control group, the experimental group showed significant gains in digital teaching competence (F = 22.085, ηp² = .290), self-efficacy (F = 32.296, ηp² = .374), work engagement (F = 14.764, ηp² = .215), and emotional exhaustion (F = 15.208, ηp² = .220). All pre- to post-test improvements in the experimental group reached high levels of significance, whereas no significant changes were observed in the control group.

This study highlights digital teaching competence as a key factor supporting teachers’ professional well-being. Structured, TPACK-informed short-term professional development can effectively strengthen teachers’ self-efficacy, enhance work engagement, and reduce emotional exhaustion. The authors recommend that educational institutions treat digital teaching competence as an essential component of teacher professional development, particularly to support sustained growth and psychological well-being in inclusive education contexts.

 

Source (Open Access): Shi, Y. R., Sin, K. F. K., & Wang, Y. Q. (2025). Teacher professional development of digital pedagogy for inclusive education in post-pandemic era: Effects on teacher competence, self-efficacy, and work well-being. Teaching and Teacher Education, 168, 105230.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2025.105230… Read the rest

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Effective Teaching Approach Kindergarten

The Mediating Role of Playfulness: Linking Parental Play Support to Creative Thinking in Hong Kong Kindergartens

Play is theorized as a crucial way children express and develop their creativity. Grounded in the bioecological model of human development and Vygotsky’s theories on play and creativity, Fung and Chung (2025) aim to address a gap in research by examining how family factors within a child’s microsystem influence creative potential. While previous research often defined creative potential solely as personality traits, Fung and Chung (2025) operationalize it through cognitive processes: divergent thinking (generating multiple solutions) and convergent thinking (deducing the single best solution). They hypothesized that parental beliefs about play would indirectly foster these creative thinking skills by nurturing children’s playfulness.

The participants were 181 children (aged 4 to 5 years; 54.1% girls) recruited from nine kindergartens in Hong Kong, along with their parents. Data collection involved both parent-reported questionnaires and direct behavioral assessments of the children. Parents completed the Parent Play Beliefs Scale (PPBS) to measure their support for play and the Children’s Playfulness Scale (CPS) to assess their child’s playfulness across five dimensions: physical, social, and cognitive spontaneity, manifest joy, and sense of humor. Children’s creative thinking was assessed directly: convergent thinking was measured using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R), while divergent thinking was evaluated using the figural circle task from the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), where children drew pictures based on circles.

Preliminary analyses showed that all five aspects of playfulness were positively correlated with parental play support, but only social spontaneity and cognitive spontaneity significantly correlated with the children’s creative thinking processes. A path analytic model was used to test the relationships, revealing that the direct link between parental play support and children’s creative thinking was non-significant. Instead, the relationship was fully mediated: parental play support positively predicted social spontaneity, which in turn predicted convergent thinking, and it positively predicted cognitive spontaneity, which predicted divergent thinking. The model demonstrated adequate fit, confirming that the influence of parental support on creativity operates through specific aspects of the child’s playful behavior.

Fung and Chung (2025) conclude that parental play support is a crucial environmental factor that fosters creative potential, but it does so indirectly by nurturing a child’s playfulness rather than directly teaching creative skills. Specifically, parents who value play create an environment that encourages social and cognitive spontaneity, which are the specific drivers of convergent and divergent thinking respectively. This finding supports the bioecological model, highlighting how the home microsystem shapes child development. Practically, Fung and Chung (2025) suggest that to enhance creativity in early childhood—a critical period for development—educators and policymakers should focus on interventions that help parents understand the value of play and promote playful behaviors in the household.

 

Source (Open Access): Fung, W. K., & Chung, K. K. H. (2025). Interrelationships Among Parental Play Support and Kindergarten Children’s Playfulness and Creative Thinking Processes. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 101907.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2025.101907

 … Read the rest

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Effective Teaching Approach Maths and Science Learning Primary School Education

Spatially-Enhanced Science Instruction in Elementary Schools: Evidence from a Randomized Study

Gagnier et al. (2026) examine whether embedding spatial thinking practices into elementary science instruction can enhance teachers’ and students’ spatial skills. Rather than relying on stand-alone spatial training, the study evaluates a spatially-enhanced (SE) science curriculum that integrates five spatial strategies—gesture, spatial comparison, spatial language, sketching, and explicit visualization instruction—into daily classroom teaching. The intervention was implemented across an academic year with 35 third-grade teachers and 572 students from a large urban U.S. school district serving predominantly historically underrepresented populations.

Using a randomized design, teachers and students were assigned to one of three conditions: business-as-usual instruction, an NGSS-aligned curriculum (NGSS: Next Generation Science Standards), or an NGSS-aligned curriculum with embedded spatial enhancements. The NGSS-aligned curriculum emphasized core disciplinary ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts specified in NGSS, but did not include explicit instruction targeting spatial thinking. By contrast, the spatially-enhanced condition incorporated the same NGSS-aligned content while systematically embedding the five spatial strategies into instructional activities.

Pre- and post-assessments of spatial skills were administered to both teachers and students. Hierarchical linear regression results indicate that teachers exposed to the spatially-enhanced curriculum demonstrated significantly stronger gains in overall spatial reasoning, particularly in spatial visualization, compared with their counterparts in the other conditions. In contrast, student gains in spatial skills were more modest and did not consistently reach statistical significance.

The findings highlight teachers as a critical leverage point for spatially-enhanced instruction. By integrating spatial thinking into everyday science teaching and professional learning, the study demonstrates a feasible, curriculum-embedded approach to strengthening teachers’ spatial competencies. While student outcomes appear more sensitive to implementation and contextual factors, the research underscores the promise of spatially-enhanced curricula as a scalable pathway for enriching STEM instruction in elementary education.

Source (Open Access): Gagnier, K. M., Holochwost, S. J., Tomazin, L., Alsayegh, S., Fatahi, N., Gold, B., & Fisher, K. R. (2025). Spatially-enhanced science instruction in elementary school: Impacts on teachers’ and students’ spatial skills. Learning and Instruction, 102248.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2025.102248… Read the rest