This article by Ortuño Meseguer and Serrano addresses a key issue on today’s educational agenda: computational thinking (CT) in primary education cannot advance at the pace of policy initiatives if teacher training and classroom strategies remain unclear.
To organize this landscape, the authors conduct a systematic review focused on two fronts: how CT is being implemented among students aged 6 to 12, and what characteristics teacher training programs have, when they exist. The study is grounded in a rigorous protocol (PRISMA; Kitchenham and Charters), reviews 428 studies from Scopus and Web of Science, and, after applying eligibility criteria and quality assessment, consolidates 24 empirical studies published between 2006 and 2023 as its evidence base.
The findings portray a familiar scene: widespread implementation, but with clear biases and gaps. Most experiences focus on grades 3 to 6, while the early years are scarcely represented, precisely where a gradual introduction would make the most sense. In terms of approaches, “plugged” activities dominate, especially robotics and block-based visual programming such as Scratch, combined with recurring strategies like hands-on learning, collaborative work, scaffolding, and problem- or challenge-based activities.
By contrast, unplugged activities, which are valuable for their accessibility and their focus on thinking processes, are used sparingly. Assessment also remains a bottleneck. Although instruments such as Bebras tasks and a variety of other tools are frequently employed, the review highlights that many measures tend to capture programming skills rather than the broader development of CT components, reinforcing the recommendation to combine multiple forms of assessment to cover different dimensions.
Of the 24 studies reviewed, only six explicitly address teacher training programs, and most of these focus on in-service professional development, with limited attention to initial teacher education, where pedagogical and conceptual foundations could be built before entering the classroom. Even when training experiences increase teachers’ confidence and skills, they often emphasize technical aspects like programming and robotics, while paying less attention to didactic criteria, curricular integration, and the inclusion of unplugged activities as a preliminary step.
The article concludes with a clear message: achieving sustainable integration of computational thinking in primary education requires Faculties of Education to lead the design and evaluation of teacher training programs, and for CT to move beyond “doing robots” toward solid, interdisciplinary, and assessable pedagogy, especially in the early grades.
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How to Cite: Ortuño Meseguer, G. ., & Serrano, J. L. (2024). Implementation and training of primary education teachers in computational thinking: a systematic review. RIED-Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia, 27(1), 255–287. https://doi.org/10.5944/ried.27.1.37572
