Computational thinking and programming with Arduino in education: A systematic review for secondary education

Abstract

The development of programming skills and computational thinking in the formal educational context is one of the most recent horizons set by many educational systems worldwide. Although the first computational thinking initiatives are being applied from the earliest school ages, this research focuses on the secondary education level. Specifically, the objective is the following: to analyse the implementation of Arduino, as well as the benefits and opportunities it brings to secondary school students. For this purpose, documentary research has been undertaken applying a systematic review according to the PRISMA 2020 framework following the PiCoS strategy. Atlas.ti 9 was used to analyse the information. Out of 316 papers identified, 37 were included in the research. In relation to the results, Arduino is primarily used in technology and physics subjects, although it is also used to develop interdisciplinary STEAM projects. As a rule, it is used to learn programming languages, but likewise as a resource to develop science experiments. LED lights, servomotors and breadboards are among the most commonly used resources together with the Arduino board. and Scratch was the most widely used software. The initiatives implemented have yielded both positive and negative results, for example, one drawback is that some projects are very difficult, and some achievements such as: increased motivation towards the contents addressed or also the development of some soft skills, such as problem solving.