Developing Programming Competencies in School-Students With Block-Based Tools in Chile, Ecuador, and Peru

The information society is a reality nowadays, and computational thinking has become a relevant competence for everybody, regardless of age, social status, and primary activity. Information society is everywhere in contemporary life, and algorithmic thinking represents a significant competency for individuals, irrespective of their educational background and social condition. Developing and applying programming competencies represents a high-value know-how ability. Block-based coding and design tools like Scratch and TinkerCAD Arduino allow people to successfully build programming competencies in online environments regardless of age and social status. This article presents empirical evidence of the positive impact of the block-based programming language Scratch and the design tool TikerCAD Arduino in practical workshops to develop computational thinking with school children, school teachers, and university students. The results permit finding patterns, and almost transversal teaching approaches to build an elementary computational thinking competency applying Scratch and TinkerCAD Arduino, with a block-based approach in both tools and textual programming in the second one. The motivation and wishes of learning in all participants were hegemonic. Those results demonstrate the positive impact of Scratch and TinkerCAD Arduino on developing computational thinking competencies without restrictions. This work shows the application of Scratch and TinkerCAD Arduino in non-WEIRD contexts and, during the pandemic time, demonstrates the relevance of online education. The results show that developing programming competencies with Scratch and TinkerCAD Arduino motivated students’ autonomy and motivation for learning regardless of their education level and status. Those results encourage us to continue using Scratch and TinkerCAD Arduino to develop programming competencies without considering age and education level.