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INTRODUCTION

Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE) has incorporated computational thinking (CT)
and computational science through the Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR)
and Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Menengah (KSSM) starting 2018. This is supported
by Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) which will benefit 1.2 million
students for 10,173 schools from all over Malaysia. CT will be integrated through the
Reka Bentuk Teknologi (RBT) subjek in primary schools and Science Computer
subject in secondary schools. MDEC in collaboration with Institut Pendidikan Guru
Malaysia (IPGM) had conducted Training of Trainer (TOT) course for primary school
RBT in-service teachers on computational thinking in the year 2019. The course was
conducted by Master Trainers from 24 Institut Pendidikan Guru (IPG) throughout
Malaysia (Figure 1). RBT teachers attending the course had to undergo four days
training course on CT concepts and practical applications through programming tools
using Scratch and Microsoft Makecode. An estimation of 560 RBT teachers were
trained during the year 2019 by IPG master trainers.

Figure 1: IPG Involve in TOT for RBT Teachers in 2019 (source: MDEC, 2019)

MOE has made the right move to introduce CT into Malaysia curriculum. Many
foreign countries had already started such move which include Austria, Denmak,
Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Switzerland (Bocconi et. al,
2016). According to Bocconi et al. (2016), the main rationale for introducing CT is to
foster 21st century skills. These skills are essential for active and fruitful participation
in the knowledge society which is actually for the needs of employment in a digitally-
oriented jobs market. Their report also summarized two main trends that emerge from
the rationale of including CT in compulsory education;