Abstract Several studies have reported that adaptivity and personalization in educational computer games facilitate reaching their full educational potential. However, there is little effort to develop adaptive educational computer games for promoting students' computational thinking (CT). In this study, an adaptive computer game is introduced, called AutoThinking, that not only promotes both CT skills and conceptual knowledge, but also provides adaptivity in both game-play and learning processes. To evaluate the possible effects of the game, an experimental study was carried out with 79 students in an elementary school in Estonia. AutoThinking and a conventional technology-enhanced learning approach were used for teaching CT to the experimental and control group, respectively. Our results reveal that AutoThinking improved students’ CT skills and conceptual knowledge better than the conventional approach. It was also found that students with a low and high level of prior knowledge made higher improvement in knowledge gain using the adaptive game compared to the traditional approach, especially those students with lower prior knowledge. Finally, our findings show that the adaptive game could also improve students' learning attitude toward CT better than the conventional approach, especially those students with higher prior learning attitudes.

中文翻译：

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一种适应性教育计算机游戏：计算思维对学生知识和学习态度的影响

摘要 几项研究报告称，教育电脑游戏的适应性和个性化有助于充分发挥其教育潜力。然而，几乎没有努力开发自适应教育计算机游戏以促进学生的计算思维（CT）。在这项研究中，引入了一种称为 AutoThinking 的自适应计算机游戏，它不仅可以促进 CT 技能和概念知识，而且还可以在游戏和学习过程中提供适应性。为了评估游戏可能产生的影响，我们对爱沙尼亚一所小学的 79 名学生进行了一项实验研究。AutoThinking 和传统的技术增强学习方法分别用于向实验组和对照组教授 CT。我们的结果表明，AutoThinking 比传统方法更好地提高了学生的 CT 技能和概念知识。还发现，与传统方法相比，具有低水平和高水平先验知识的学生在使用自适应游戏的知识获取方面取得了更大的进步，尤其是那些先验知识较低的学生。最后，我们的研究结果表明，自适应游戏还可以比传统方法更好地提高学生对 CT 的学习态度，尤其是那些具有较高先前学习态度的学生。尤其是那些先验知识较低的学生。最后，我们的研究结果表明，自适应游戏还可以比传统方法更好地提高学生对 CT 的学习态度，尤其是那些具有较高先前学习态度的学生。尤其是那些先验知识较低的学生。最后，我们的研究结果表明，自适应游戏还可以比传统方法更好地提高学生对 CT 的学习态度，尤其是那些具有较高先前学习态度的学生。