The ComeThinkAgain Project: Playful Computational Thinking in Primary Teacher Education Through Game Mechanics

The ComeThinkAgain Project develops a playful, game-based micro-module on computational thinking (CT) for primary teacher education, delivered as a 1-ECTS course for Swiss in-service and trainee teachers. Its central aim is to introduce CT through familiar games and unplugged, tactile activities rather than conventional programming, and to examine whether this approach helps teachers see CT as a broader problem-solving competence that can be carried into everyday classroom practice across subjects.

The pilot study, conducted with a small cohort, offers preliminary and explicitly non-generalisable evidence. Of eight initial participants, five completed the course, with three withdrawing mainly because of workload. Qualitative focus-group data indicated that teachers increasingly understood CT as a general approach to problem-solving rather than as programming alone, and that they transferred CT concepts into varied cross-curricular projects. These findings rest on written protocols rather than full transcripts, and survey data have not yet been analysed, which constrains the strength of the conclusions drawn.

The work is situated within a body of prior research on game-based learning, teacher training in CT, and tangible algorithmic education, drawing on foundational contributions from Papert and Wing as well as recent systematic reviews. Several of these cited studies address game-based learning and visual programming outcomes that the project's own investigation builds upon. The authors recommend shorter course formats and larger, more rigorously documented samples in future implementations to strengthen the evidence base.