Towards Computational Thinking Beliefs of Computer Science Non-Major Students In Introductory Robotics - A Comparative Study

While computational thinking is a popular concept in K12 education, it is not very well researched in undergraduate students of computer science non-major degrees. In the current study the critical factors in learning computational skills from the students' point of view are being researched. To grasp which skills are considered critical a questionnaire was constructed to measure the self-evaluation for a mixed group of undergraduate computer science non-major students who attained an introduction in physical computing using both Lego Mindstorms and humanoid Nao robots at a university of applied sciences. The results show, that the computational thinking self-assessment of the students has a significant influence on their evaluation of physical computing exercises. Furthermore, the students prefer humanoid robots over automotive robots and their robot evaluations and computational thinking self-assessment varies based on their field of study. The results point to further investigations into the conceptions and beliefs of students in future studies.