Effectiveness of explicit guidance and practices on abstraction (EGPA): Focusing on computational tasks in a fifth-grade STEM-integrative robotic education program

Developing students’ computational thinking has emerged as a crucial objective across K-12 curricula nationwide. Particularly, abstraction is the cornerstone of computational thinking, but endeavors of cultivating students’ abstract thinking have not yielded significant results. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the Explicit Guidance and Practices on Abstraction (EGPA) on fostering 5th graders’ abstraction in a STEM-integrated robotics curriculum. By tapping into the cognitive root of abstraction, EGPA refers to a series of theory-informed strategies and instructional practices focused on students’ abstraction. A convergent mixed methods study was conducted to collect quantitative and qualitative data about K-5 students’ abstraction and their experience with the EGPA. The findings reported K-5 students attending the STEM-integrated robotics curriculum with EGPA integrated had statistically significant improvements on their abstraction. Qualitative findings provided in-depth insights about students’ experiences with the EGPA. The findings from both sources of data were converged to describe the effectiveness of EGPA on K-5 students’ abstraction. Practical implications are offered for professionals investing in STEM education.