From Programming to Action: Educational Robotics for the Development of Computational Thinking and Transversal Skills in Elementary School in Italy

Abstract

Educational robotics provides a particularly meaningful learning environment for introducing elementary school students to the principles of programming and computational thinking through concrete, collaborative, and problem-solving-oriented experiences. This paper describes a teaching experience carried out with a fourth-grade elementary school class as part of a workshop program aimed at developing skills in programming, robotics, and problem solving at Primo Istituto Comprensivo “A. Moro – P. Virgilio Marone” in Italy.

The program progressively guided the students from learning about the MicroBit board and visual block-based programming to using sensors, motors, and actuators, and finally to designing algorithms for line following and obstacle detection. The activities took place in the computer lab, alternating between individual work and small-group activities.

The methodological framework integrated active and experiential learning, a constructivist approach, problem solving, cooperative learning, the inductive method, and progressive scaffolding. The program was designed with a progression of increasing difficulty, in which each activity served as a prerequisite for the next. The observed results highlight a solid acquisition of the intended technical skills, a significant development in problem-decomposition and analysis abilities, and increasing autonomy during the debugging phase. Positive results also emerged in collaborative skills, peer communication, and error management. The experience confirms the potential of educational robotics as a teaching tool capable of making abstract concepts concrete and integrating digital, cognitive, and social-relational skills.