Computational thinking from the past to the present: A retrospective using bibliometric analysis

Abstract

This study aims to examine the published scientific studies on computational thinking (CT) from the past to the present, based on the Web of Science (WoS) database. In this context, 3123 documents with CT content from the past to the present were evaluated. Articles and proceeding papers accessed from the database were analyzed with the help of bibliometric analysis under the titles of scientific productivity, network analysis, conceptual structure and thematic map. Within scientific productivity, the distribution of studies and citations by years, productive authors, most cited studies, productive institutions and productive countries were considered. A collaboration between authors, sources, institutions and countries was examined in network analysis. Keyword-based techniques were used to determine the intellectual structure of the CT topic. Finally, trend content and thematic changes were analyzed based on the conceptual structure and thematic map. The study analyzed 3123 scientific documents published by 6467 authors representing 83 countries. According to the findings, the number of scientific studies and citations on CT is increasing. Dagiene, V., Biswas, G., and Kong, S. C. are prolific authors. The Education University of Hong Kong, North Carolina State University and Natl Taiwan Normal University are among the most productive institutions. The USA, China, Spain, Brazil, and Italy are productive countries for CT. According to the network analysis, Computers & Education and Communications of the ACM journals stand out. As a thematic change, there are evolutions towards innovative approaches with skill and goal content in studies. At the end of the Multiple Correspondence Analysis performed to determine the conceptual structure in CT, dimension reductions were found to be approximately 43% of the total variability. As suggestions, some thoughts on the future of CT were shared.