Investigating the Impact of Programming Activities on Computational Thinking and AI Literacy in Spanish Schools

This article presents research conducted within the School of Computational Thinking and Artificial Intelligence (EPCIA in its original form in Spanish) project, an initiative developed by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Vocational Training during the 2020-21 academic year. The study investigated whether it is possible to contribute to the development of students’ computational thinking skills and artificial intelligence (AI) literacy through programming activities using the Scratch language and the Machine Learning for Kids platform. The study involved 133 teachers and more than 2,000 students, from 4th to 8th grade, with representation from 17 of the 19 Spanish regions. Students took a quantitative test on computational thinking and another on AI before and after the intervention, and teachers and students also took a questionnaire at the end of it. The results showed that: i) quantitative tests can be used to reliably measure, in terms of internal consistency, the level of development of computational thinking and AI literacy in the Spanish school population of these ages; ii) it is possible to develop students’ computational thinking skills and raise their level of AI literacy through programming activities; iii) the intervention contributed to demystifying the main prejudices regarding AI; iv) a gender gap was found in relation to previous knowledge and experiences with these topics. Overall, the study concluded that introducing the foundations of AI in primary and secondary education in Spain is appropriate, feasible, and relevant.