Abstraction in CT Education
This project develops teaching materials and tools to help beginners build core computational thinking skills through problem-based learning with syntax-free environments for game creation and robot programming.
Factsheet
- Schools involved School of Engineering and Computer Science
- Institute(s) Institute for Human Centered Engineering (HUCE)
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Research unit(s)
HUCE / Laboratory for Computer Perception and Virtual Reality
HUCE / Laboratory for Robotics - Strategic thematic field Thematic field "Humane Digital Transformation"
- Funding organisation Others
- Duration (planned) 01.01.2026 - 31.12.2026
- Head of project Prof. Dr. Sarah Dégallier Rochat
- Partner Universität Bern
- Keywords Computer Thinking, Abstraction, Decomposition, Robotic Programming
Situation
Programming has transitioned from a specialized skill reserved for technical experts to an essential competence across diverse disciplines. Today, programming is increasingly recognized not merely as a technical practice, but as a powerful tool to foster computational thinking (CT)—the foundational ability to analyze problems, abstract relevant details, and systematically develop solutions. However, educational offerings that emphasize accessibility, particularly visual and block-based programming interfaces such as Thymio, Candli or ScratchJr, often prioritize simplicity at the expense of deeper CT concepts like abstraction and decomposition. This gap leaves learners ill-equipped to independently transfer their skills across different contexts and programming paradigms.
Course of action
The aim of this project is to close this gap by developing teaching materials and supporting software environments specifically designed to cultivate core CT skills in beginners with no prior programming experience, with particular emphasis on abstraction and decomposition. We focus especially on guiding students to think at varying levels of abstraction as required by different tasks. We will use a problem-based approach involving the syntax-free programming interfaces Candli, an interface for learning STEAM competencies through video games creation, and Prograblock, an interface for learning robot programming.
