Promoting college students’ computational thinking: the use of constructionism-based accounting spreadsheets designing activities

Abstract

Computational thinking is seen as a basic and essential skill in the 21st century, but its development issue in accounting education is still relatively limited. Therefore, anchored in Wing’s (2006) computational thinking theory, this study makes a case for developing problem-solving skills, which involve abstraction, decomposition, generalization, evaluation, and algorithmic. Given the importance of computational thinking in spreadsheets teaching, this classroom-based study aims to investigate the use of constructionism-based accounting spreadsheets designing activities to promote college students’ computational thinking in the accounting spreadsheets design context. This study used a participatory qualitative approach to investigate the phenomenon of constructing accounting spreadsheets design between students and lecturers in the classroom. Thirty-eight Accounting education majors were participants in the study. In this study, data were collected from students’ work artifacts, classroom observations, and discussion notes from college students. Referring to qualitative content analysis, findings show that constructionism-based accounting spreadsheets designing activities help the college students develop their computational thinking of spreadsheets errors or deficiencies realities found in spreadsheets design they observed. This study shows that using both constructionism activities and spreadsheets as a learning resource loaded with critical, creative, systematic, and logical thinking has the potential to promote student computational thinking in accounting spreadsheets classrooms. This study gave two main recommendations to practicioner’ accounting education, (a) when teaching the topic of accounting spreadsheets design, a lecturer must provide college students with spreadsheets errors taxonomy, and (b) in terms of activity design, spreadsheets learning should be directed to developing the college students’ computational thinking.

Keywords:

• constructionism
• computational thinking
• spreadsheets design
• accounting education

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Constructionism-based accounting spreadsheets designing activities are a pedagogy intervention that helps college students in developing computational thinking by familiarizing them with the mindset of abstraction, decomposition, generalization, evaluation, and algorithmic. Spreadsheets are known as computational thinking tools, but spreadsheets will not be able to develop computational thinking if they are not supported by relevant activities. Constructionism-based accounting spreadsheets designing activities are designed to encourage college students to become active constructors in building their knowledge of accounting spreadsheets design. Constructionism demands collaboration between group members. The small group design aims to increase college students’ engagement using computational thinking in solving problems. This study explores the accounting spreadsheets designing activities as a pedagogy intervention to develop college students’ computational thinking. The study opens up further conversations about how certain pedagogical interventions can help students in developing their computational thinking as they engage with various accounting cases and participate in a variety of learning activities.

1. Introduction

In recent years, computational thinking’ issues have been widely discussed and researched (Tang et al., 2020), but its development issue in higher education is still relatively limited. Higher education seeks to develop a way of thinking that is able to encourage students to solve problems around them critically (Alfaro-Ponce et al., 2023). Computational thinking is seen as a basic and essential skill in the 21st century (Voogt et al., 2015, Wing and Stanzione, 2016), it includes a wide range of skills in “solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior using computer science concepts” (Wing, 2006: 33). Empirically, good computational thinking will enhance 21^st-century skills, such as creativity, algorithmic thinking, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving (Durak-Yildiz & Saritepeci, 2018, Günbatar and Bakırcı, 2018, Korkmaz et al., 2017, Saritepeci, 2019, Yağcı, 2018). In other words, the improvement of these skills can be bridged through students’ development of computational thinking.

Computational thinking’s main focus lies in the partnership of human thinking and digital machines so that digital solutions become part of a natural process such as using a pencil or reference book to solve problems (Sanford, 2018). Many digital solutions can be utilized to assist students in developing their computational thinking, such as Scratch, Blockly, Snap, CTSim, ViMAP, Netlogo, Star Logo, StarLogo Nova, a simulation creation tool kit, C2STEM, iSENSE, and spreadsheets (Ogegbo & Ramnarain, 2021). Spreadsheets are one of the digital solutions that are often used in the accounting field to help college students develop computational thinking (Gero & Levin, 2018). Spreadsheets are an important tool for studying accounting and finance (Frownfelter- Lohrke, 2017).

Several studies report that almost all companies use spreadsheets for financial reporting. However, many studies also report high spreadsheets errors. Finally, the company must bear significant losses. Schneider et al. (2017) present several examples of company losses caused by spreadsheets design errors, such as (1) the incident in shareholder Tibco Software, Inc., losing $100 million, (2) in Australia, resulting in a loss of more than $1. billion dollars, and (3) at the 2012 London Olympics, spreadsheet errors caused asynchronous reporting of tickets sold (20,000 tickets) and tickets reported (10,000 tickets). Spreadsheets users including college students, often make spreadsheets errors because they have minimal programming skills and do not use computational thinking in designing spreadsheets. For example, accounting education college students are not accustomed to using computational thinking to solve problems related to computer science (Lawson et al., 2009). In other words, it is very important to develop college students’ computational thinking in order to minimize spreadsheets errors. Given the complexity of using spreadsheets in the future, good spreadsheets design skills are needed for financial reporting (Schneider et al., 2017) so that they can help college students develop computational thinking.

Spreadsheets are a medium for developing computational thinking in the accounting field (Gero & Levin, 2018), but spreadsheets will not be able to develop computational thinking by themselves. Spreadsheets will be able to develop computational thinking if supported by appropriate and good activities. For this reason, spreadsheets as a computing tool must be supported by a pedagogical strategy to develop computational thinking optimally. Pedagogical strategies that are oriented towards student involvement in the activity of designing spreadsheets will enable students to develop computational thinking. One of the pedagogical strategies to familiarize or involve students with a computational mindset through spreadsheets is a constructionist strategy (Gero & Levin, 2018).

Constructionism in the spreadsheets classroom makes students active constructors in creating spreadsheets design. Constructionism views the learner as an active constructor rather than a receiver of information (Papert, 1980). In addition, in the constructionism learning environment, learners actively share and reflect on artifacts collaboratively (Hay & Barab, 2001). Therefore, this study offers designing spreadsheets activities referring to the distributed constructionism theory developed by Resnick (1996). The notion of distributed constructionism is an expansion of the constructionism proposed by Papert (1980). Resnick’s distributed constructionism theory (1996) focuses on students’ active engagement in construction activities, namely discussing construction/artifacts, sharing construction/artifacts, and constructing artifacts collaboratively. Constructionism strategies allow for students’ active engagement to use computational thinking in designing spreadsheets activities.

Although there have been previous studies investigating constructionism and computational thinking in the context of spreadsheets learning (Gero & Levin, 2018), there have been calls to investigate pedagogical activities that help students majoring in non-computer science to familiarize computational mindsets in producing accurate spreadsheets design (Yeh et al., 2011). An accurate spreadsheets design for financial reporting is one of the spreadsheets learning targets for accounting education students (Frownfelter- Lohrke, 2017, Schneider et al., 2017). In this digital age, there should be more classroom-based research examining student engagement in co-constructing and sharing artifacts (Resnick, 1996), such as investigating how paedagogic activities and spreadsheets can develop computational thinking (Gero & Levin, 2018). To broaden this horizon, this classroom-based study investigates how accounting education students’ activities to design spreadsheets for financial reporting in a constructionism learning environment so that their computational thinking can be maximally developed.

This classroom-based study was specifically geared to develop college students’ computational thinking through constructionism-based spreadsheets design activities. It was guided by the following research questions:

1. In what ways do constructionism-based spreadsheets design activities develop accounting education students’ computational thinking?

2. What are the student’s responses to spreadsheets designing activities after they were engaged in the activities?

2. Literature review

2.1. Computational thinking in accounting education majors

The idea of computational thinking was first proposed by Papert (1980) and then developed by Wing (2006). Wing (2006) emphasizes that computational thinking focuses on how to think by utilizing computer science concepts to solve problems, create systems and understand a person’s behavior. In computational thinking, the utilization of computer science concepts does not have to utilize computers, but their development can be done using computers (Wing, 2008). The computational thinking concept is more emphasized in the mindset that computer scientists use when facing problems (Grover & Pea, 2013). The main focus of computational thinking lies in the partnership of human thinking and digital machines so that digital solutions become part of natural processes such as using pencils or reference books to solve problems (Sanford, 2018). In Accounting education, students are required to be able to use technology/digital machines, because technological competence is one of the basic competencies of competency-based frameworks that have long been applied in accounting education (Schneider, et al., 2017). Wolcott and Sargent (2021) emphasized that technology is one of the basic competencies needed by all accounting graduates.

One of the most needed and useful technological competencies for college students’ accounting education is spreadsheets, especially Microsoft Excel. Several studies have shown that electronic spreadsheets are effective and efficient for handling work-related accounting (Rackliffe & Ragland, 2016, Schneider, et al., 2017). In addition, the accounting profession emphasizes that accounting education graduates must have the ability to operationalize and good spreadsheets design (Frownfelter- Lohrke, 2017), such as utilizing functions to analyze and process data in the field of accounting (Rackliffe & Ragland, 2016) and financial reporting (Panko, 1998). On the other hand, spreadsheets are one of the computational thinking tools. Gero and Levin (2018) emphasized that computational thinking can be developed through computational tools known as spreadsheets. Spreadsheets have become widely known as programming tools (Ramakrishnan et al., 2006). Computational thinking developed through programming activities includes various skills such as, abstraction, algorithmic design, decomposition, evaluation, and generalization (Román-González et al., 2017, Selby and Woollard, 2013, Tsai et al., 2020, Wing, 2006).

Abstraction, the thought process that focuses on important information to facilitate problem-solving; decomposition, the thought process of how to manage and decompose complex problems into small parts; algorithmic design, the thought process of planning the solution of the problems with a gradual procedure; evaluation, the thought process of finding the best solution by comparing available solution alternatives; generalization, the thought process in using the solution pattern of certain problems on similar problems (Tsai et al., 2020). Thus, computational thinking in the accounting spreadsheets classroom includes abstraction skills, algorithmic design, decomposition, evaluation, and generalization that help college students to identify problems, plan spreadsheets design, execute spreadsheets design plans, and test spreadsheets designs.

2.2. Constructionism-based accounting spreadsheets design activities

In the development of computational thinking, digital solutions become part of natural processes such as using pencils or reference books to solve problems (Sanford, 2018). One of the digital solutions that are often used to help students develop computational thinking is spreadsheets (Ogegbo & Ramnarain, 2021). Of the various digital solutions, spreadsheets is one of the digital solutions that are relevant to the accounting profession. Spreadsheets are widely applied in accounting disciplines and also as a medium for developing students’ computational thinking (Gero & Levin, 2018). The accounting profession demands that accounting education graduates must have good spreadsheets skills because spreadsheets are an important tool for processing accounting data (Frownfelter- Lohrke, 2017). For this reason, spreadsheets can facilitate accounting learning geared towards building and developing students’ computational thinking.

Spreadsheets as a digital solution for computational thinking, however, it cannot develop college students’ computational thinking by itself. Together with the paedagogical strategies in favor, spreadsheets will be a medium capable of developing computational thinking. Gero and Levin (2018) asserted that constructionism is one of the pedagogical strategies to familiarize or engage students in computational thinking through spreadsheets. In a constructionist environment, students become active constructors in designing spreadsheets. Papert (1996) argued that constructionism facilitates the learners to be active constructors of information/knowledge. In a constructionist learning environment, students collaboratively construct and share artifacts (Hay & Barab, 2001). Thus, in a constructionism learning environment, college students’ engagement in accounting spreadsheets designing activities is able to support the development of college students’ computational thinking. The accounting spreadsheets designing activities are directed to assist college students in processing accounting data, in this case, including (1) observing errors or shortcomings in spreadsheets design shared by lecturers, (2) planning spreadsheets design, (3) executing spreadsheets design planning, (4) evaluating and documenting spreadsheets design, and (5) sharing spreadsheets design. These activities are implemented to establish the habitual use of college students’ computational thinking in solving accounting cases.

3. Material and method

3.1. Research design

This study used a participatory qualitative approach. This approach was used to investigate the phenomenon of constructing accounting spreadsheets design between students and lecturers in the classroom. This reality was investigated using a case study design. This reality described the computational thinking that arises when students engage in the accounting spreadsheets designing activities. This study used a participatory approach to increase student engagement in the classroom through discussion, collaboration, and sharing of accounting spreadsheets design. College students were involved in observing, planning, executing plans, evaluating, and sharing artifacts. Thus, researchers collaborated with participants and built dialectical relationships.

3.2. Participant

This study was conducted at a university located in the eastern part of Java, Indonesia. Thirty-eight college students who enrolled in the Spreadsheets Design Course participated in this research. College students were not majoring in computer science. Participants have taken accounting principles and intermediate accounting courses. They have studied manually the service and trade companies’ accounting cycles when taking the accounting principles and intermediate accounting courses. In other words, participants are already experienced in compiling financial reports manually. Participants were aged 20–21, meaning they belonged to the digital native generation (Prensky, 2001) who were very fond of using technology in learning.

3.3. Instructional procedures

The theme of spreadsheets design for accounting was part of the Spreadsheets Design course. The general goal of the course was to enhance college students’ accounting computer competence; one of which was to develop college students’ computational thinking. In the course, the college students were required to attend 16 class periods over 16 weeks. Particularly for the focus of computational thinking, the college students carried out constructionism-based accounting spreadsheets designing activities projects for eight weeks. One meeting takes 100 minutes (see Table 1). One of the authors as a lecturer negotiated the intervention, constructionism-based spreadsheets design activities as one of the course requirements. Negotiations with college students were carried out to formulate learning objectives and outcomes because students were research collaborators at a classroom level.

Table 1. Lecturer and students’ activities in constructivism-based spreadsheets learning

Stages	Lecturer Activities	College Students Activities
Observing spreadsheets design (two weeks)	Explain and share spreadsheets designs with college students, then ask them to identify errors or deficiencies in the design based on spreadsheets error taxonomy. Assigning college students to decipher errors or deficiencies that have been identified into small parts.	Observing and identifying spreadsheets design errors or deficiencies shared by lecturers in groups. They identify errors or deficiencies based on spreadsheets error taxonomy. Deciphering errors or deficiencies that have been identified into small parts in groups
Planning spreadsheets design (two weeks)	Ask each group member to find alternative solutions through social media, then discuss the solutions obtained by each member of the group Ask college students to determine the best and most relevant solution, then compile the improvement steps in stages and detail.	Navigate and discuss alternative solutions obtained from social media within the group. Choose the best and most relevant solution. Make planning domain by structuring the solution steps in stages and detail. Make planning spreadsheets by drawing up the solution steps in stages and detail.
Executing spreadsheets design plans (two weeks)	Ask college students to input a planned reports template on worksheets Ask students to input formulas or coding in the report templates available in worksheets as planned.	Creating a needed reports template in order to compile financial statements on worksheets according to planning. Inputting formulas or coding in report templates available in worksheets as planned.
Evaluating spreadsheets design (one week)	Assigning college students to test the completed design, then asking them to create documentation of the design process from scratch	Test and refine the design, then create documentation of the design process from scratch
Sharing spreadsheets design (one week)	Ask college students to present their spreadsheets design video	Sharing videos containing the planning process to testing the design, and giving suggestions and criticisms of other groups’ designs

Both the college students and the lecturer agreed to do five activities: Observing, Planning, Executing a plan, evaluating, and sharing (O-P-E-E-S) along with in-class group discussions. In the constructionism-based spreadsheets designing activities project, the participants who went through the O-P-E-E-S stages were involved in negotiation and change of the perspectives with their peers. In the first stage (Observing Spreadsheets design, two weeks), the lecturer gave design spreadsheets topics for trade companies. College students can choose the type of trading business that is attractive to them such as selling food, clothing, computers, shoes, and other trading businesses. They are asked to observe the spreadsheets design given by the lecturer and identify errors or deficiencies that exist in the design given the lecturer. They analyzed the designs given by the lecturers based on Schneider et al.’s taxonomy of spreadsheet errors. Afterward, each group points out errors or flaws in spreadsheets design that were successfully identified in-class discussion

In the second stage (Planning spreadsheets design, two weeks), the students were assigned to plan spreadsheets design i.e. planning improvements to errors or deficiencies that have been identified. In the third stage (Executing spreadsheets design plan, two weeks), the college students execute the design plan into spreadsheets. In the fourth stage (Evaluating spreadsheets design, one week), the students test the design of completed spreadsheets to obtain an accurate design of spreadsheets. In the fifth stage (Sharing spreadsheets design, one week), the students share spreadsheets design with other groups in order to get suggestions and criticisms from other groups.

3.4. Data collection and analysis

Empirical data were collected through the documentation of college students’ artifacts (design spreadsheets and descriptions as well as college students’ reflective notes), classroom observations, and in-class discussion notes. College students’ artifacts were used to see what they design spreadsheets accurately. This type of data helped the researchers see college students’ understanding of errors or flaws in the design of a spreadsheet. All college students’ artifacts are documented in the form of a portfolio. Classroom observation aims to monitor what college students discuss in the classroom. This data was used to obtain an overview of how students observe and identify problems, plan, execute plans, and evaluate spreadsheets design that has been generated. College students’ discussion notes were used to confirm the computational thinking used to solve the problem. These student discussion notes were used to support data obtained from artifacts and classroom observations and increase trust. Qualitative analysis in this study was based on text interpretation.

4. Findings

4.1. Constructionism-based spreadsheets designing activities

This class-based research tried to develop college students’ computational through constructionism-based accounting spreadsheets designing activities. This study included five activities namely O-P-E-E-S. Participants were divided into eight small groups, each group consisting of four or five students.

4.1.1. Observing spreadsheets design

In the first stage, college students were asked to observe and identify errors or deficiencies in the spreadsheets design shared by the lecturer. College students observed spreadsheets design spreadsheets obtained from the lecturer, then identify important errors or shortcomings. The lecturer reminded students about the spreadsheets planning errors taxonomy, in this study, researchers refer to the spreadsheet errors taxonomy’s Schneider, et al. (2017). Next, college students break down errors or flaws into small parts. These activities will have an impact on familiarizing the use of computational mindsets in designing spreadsheets such as abstraction and decomposition. In developing computational thinking, especially abstraction and decomposition. Observing spreadsheets design stage was carried out in two meetings (see Table 2).

Table 2. Observing spreadsheets design stage

Meeting	College students Activities	Computational Thinking	Quotes
Week #1, 29 October 2021	Observing and identifying spreadsheets design errors or deficiencies shared by lecturers in groups. They identify errors or deficiencies based on spreadsheets’ error taxonomy.	Abstraction	“Spreadsheets design operationalized unfine and the company’s accounting cycle presented in unfull.”
Week #2, 3 November 2021	Deciphering errors or deficiencies that have been identified into small parts in groups	Decomposition	“When we input the wrong sales transaction, the delete button cannot delete per item, there is no purchase form, the inventories list only records the goods sold, does not record the goods purchased, and there is no sales/purchase column on credit, there is no list of customers and suppliers for the purposes of credit sales/purchases, there is no general journal form to record transactions other than sales or purchases, such as returns of goods, no income statement, changes in capital, balance sheets, and cash flows.”

These activities guided college students to identify spreadsheets design errors or deficiencies such as domain planning errors (errors in the field of accounting) and spreadsheets planning errors (formula errors, design errors, and typos). In the observing spreadsheets design stage, college students find errors or shortcomings, such as spreadsheets design that cannot be operationalized properly and forms that support the preparation of financial statements were not completed. In the case of inoperable spreadsheets design, students are required to have high accuracy in analyzing errors because students have to pay close attention to the coding of VBA excel and the utilization of built-in functions. Through this activity, college students were accustomed to using an abstraction mindset, namely, they were guided to focus on finding important mistakes. In addition, college students were also accustomed to using a decomposition mindset, that is, they were guided to decompose the problems found into small parts.

4.1.2. Planning spreadsheets design

In the second stage, college students plan spreadsheets design including domain planning and spreadsheets planning. The implementation at this stage consists of (1) students individually accessing social media to explore alternative solutions (various alternative functions built-in excel and coding), (2) the findings of each member were discussed in groups to determine the best solution to correct mistakes or complete design deficiencies, (3) together with the team compiled domain planning steps based on the best solution taken in step 2 in stages and detail, and (4) together with the team to compile the spreadsheets planning steps based on the forms that have been planned in step 3 in order and in detail. In developing computational thinking, especially generalization, evaluation, and algorithmics. The planning spreadsheets design stage was carried out in two meetings (see Table 3).

Table 3. Planning spreadsheets design stage

Meeting	College students Activities	Computational Thinking	Quotes
Week #3, 10 November 2021	Navigate and discuss alternative solutions obtained from social media within the group.	Generalization	“Each member of our group is looking for how the process of coding VBA excel via Youtube”
	Choose the best and most relevant solution	Evaluation	“Each member of the group presents the search results of the Excel VBA coding process, after which we select one of the Excel VBA coding processes that were considered the best taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of each coding process.”
Week #4, 17 November 2021	Make planning domain by structuring the solution steps in stages and detail.	Algorithmic	“Add the necessary forms with the arrangement of sheet 1: company profile and accounting policies, sheet 2: company initial data, sheet 3: transactions, sheet 4: sales input form,… sheet 8: financial statements.”
	Make planning spreadsheets by drawing up the solution steps in stages and detail.	Algorithmic	“We prepare the necessary formulas and coding in each of the forms that we will use in creating spreadsheets design.”

When students explored various alternative solutions, each group member was required to pay close attention to the settlement patterns for cases that were almost the same as the cases currently faced. College students were accustomed to using a generalization mindset also developed through the activity of exploring various alternative problem solving, finding alternative formulas that can be used to design applicable applications, and finding application design ideas that are different but relevant to the characteristics of the company. These activities were carried out by utilizing excel functions and code based on previous experience and access to social media. The evaluation was developed through decision-making activities to choose the best alternative. Algorithmic thinking was developed through creating formulas activities based on the functions used and according to spreadsheet design principles with detailed and sequential steps.

4.1.3. Executing Spreadsheets Design Plan

In the third stage, college students implemented spreadsheets design plans in excel software such as creating templates of the necessary reports and creating formulas in the template and coding. In addition, they also documented the design process from planning to execution. Documenting the spreadsheets design process was useful for operating different transaction data and reminds us how spreadsheets work. Activity at this stage was tried to develop computational thinking, in particular algorithmic. Executing of spreadsheets design plan stage was carried out in two meetings (see Table 4).

Table 4. Executing spreadsheets design plan stage

Meeting	College students Activities	Computational Thinking	Quotes
Week #5, 24 November 2021	Creating a needed reports template in order to compile financial statements on worksheets according to planning.	Algorithmic	“Create the required forms into worksheets in Excel according to the original plan”
Week #6, 1 December 2021	Inputting formulas or coding in report templates available in worksheets as planned.	Algorithmic	“Creating formulas and coding on the necessary forms such as coding the cashier transaction sheet and creating formulas on other forms”

In this activity, college students were required to think gradually and in detail when making report templates and data on the appropriate worksheets and enter formulas or coding on the appropriate report template. In other words, through this activity college students were accustomed to algorithmic thinking, namely working on the planned steps in stages and detail.

4.1.4. Evaluating Spreadsheets Design

In the fourth stage, college students evaluated the spreadsheets design that has been made to ascertain whether the spreadsheets design can be properly operationalized. They tested the design whether it was automated and whether the formula or coding created was correct. This activity allows college students to debug the coding that has been created. In order to develop computational thinking, in particular generalization and evaluation. Evaluating spreadsheets design stage was carried out in pne meeting (see Table 5).

Table 5. Evaluating spreadsheets design stage

Meeting	College students Activities	Computational Thinking	Quotes
Week #7, 8 December 2021	Test and refine the design, then create documentation of the design process from scratch	Generalization and Evaluation	“We did a trial and error on our design and repair again because the cancel button worked unfine”

In the evaluation spreadsheets design stage, college students were accustomed to using the mindset of generalization and evaluation. When college students found mistakes during trial and error, they must find alternative solutions and they must immediately decide on alternatives that will be used to improve the design. In other words, college students’ computational thinking, especially generalization and evaluations, can be developed through this activity.

4.1.5. Sharing spreadsheets design

In the sharing design stage, the lecturer shared a link with another group, it containing the design process and spreadsheets design artifacts in the video form. Each college student submits criticism and suggestions in writing to the design of other groups according to the instructions of the lecturer. College students present weaknesses and solutions to overcome the design weaknesses of other groups. Sharing spreadsheets design stage was carried out in 1 meeting (see Table 6). Table 6 shows that these sharing activities of spreadsheets design try to develop computational thinking, in particular decomposition and algorithmics. The decomposition mindset can be seen when college students outline the weaknesses of other group spreadsheets design, while the algorithmic mindset can be seen when students give suggestions in the form of corrective steps for the design of the observed group.

Table 6. Spreadsheets design sharing phase

Meeting	College students Activities	Computational Thinking	Quotes
Week #7, 15 December 2021	Sharing videos containing the planning process to testing the design, and giving suggestions and criticisms of other groups’ designs	Decomposition	“In my opinion, the weaknesses of the group design that I observed are 1) when operated there is still debugging because there is a lack of coding; … 4) cannot delete one transaction on the Cashier Transaction sheet (if clicked Cancel it will delete all transactions that have been inputted); 5) cannot delete one Transaction Data that has been inputted (if click delete it will be deleted all existing transaction data); 6) sheets of financial statements have not yet worked”
		Algorithmic	“In my opinion, the steps in overcoming these weaknesses include: 1) continuing the unresolved coding so that the application can run well; … 4) add coding in order to remove a single transaction and/or transaction data; 5) provide coding or links so that the sheets of financial statements can run well; 6) conduct trials and evaluations on applications that have been created

4.2. College students’ responses to spreadsheets designing activities after they engaged in the activities

All college students gave a positive response to the activity of designing spreadsheets based on constructionism. The response given by students is based on the question “What competencies did you gain during your time in the accounting spreadsheets designing activities?” The following is a sample of student responses (representatives of each group) after being involved in the accounting spreadsheets designing activities.

CS1: “ … , become more critical in identifying problems, become more aware that all designs must have advantages and disadvantages, … .”

CS2: “Can improve my critical thinking skills in identifying common problems to minor problems … .”

CS3: “ … I can make financial reports using VBA excel, determine formulas for journals to financial statements, and try the VBA whether there was an error or can already run the VBA, … .”

CS4: “ … with the design task of this application gets new knowledge about VBA, can determine sheets that are approximately not needed, become aware of features that can be used in Excel, especially in the developer section, can get alternative knowledge of formulas that are easy to apply for early adopters.”

CS5: “Competence in understanding problems related to existing designs, finding solutions to these problems and compiling VBA for spreadsheet, both functions from each coding used to understanding the design functions (form and text boxes) used.”

CS6: “(a) Become better able to think critically, innovatively, systematically, and logically in analyzing and developing Excel designs, (b) Become better able to work together in groups according to the agreed division of labor, …, (e) Become more capable of applying the correct theories, concepts, and procedures in designing number processing applications.”

CS7: “Able to find the right solutions to problems found in Excel. Can analyze the right formulas for use in creating the design.”

CS8: “The competencies that I got were how to design sheets in Excel well, choose to use efficient formulas, easy to understand, and how to operate ready-made designs”

Based on the college students’ responses above, show that the development of a computational mindset through the activity of designing spreadsheets based on constructionism can foster students’ critical awareness of errors or deficiencies in the design of spreadsheets that they observe (see CS1, CS2, and CS3). College students are also able to make innovations in the initial design, this shows an increase in student creativity (see CS6). The ability to work together can also be improved through this activity. This can be seen from the responses of college students 1 and 2 (CS1 and CS2). The CS5’s response indicates the use of algorithmic thinking when compiling coding through VBA excel. In addition, college students are also able to improve their problem-solving skills (see CS4, CS7, and CS8). In other words, the development of computational thinking through constructionism-based accounting spreadsheets designing activities has a positive impact on 21^st-century skills such as creativity, critical thinking, algorithmic thinking, cooperative, and problem-solving.

5. Discussion

In this study, use of observing, planning, executing, evaluating and sharing activities in spreadsheets design can be promote students’ abstraction, decomposition, algorithmic, generalization, and evaluation. The results of this study show that constructionism-based accounting spreadsheets designing activities support the development of college students’ computational thinking. These findings are in line with Gero and Levin’s (2018) research which confirms that one of the pedagogical strategies for familiarizing or engaging students with a computational mindset through spreadsheets was a constructionist process. Students become active constructors when designing spreadsheets. In addition, in a learning environment of constructionism, learners actively share and collaboratively reflect on artifacts (Hay & Barab, 2001). In other words, constructionism encourages college students to be actively involved in using computational thinking in accounting spreadsheets designing activities. The focus of constructionism lies in the active construction of knowledge by building artifacts (Girvan & Savage, 2019).

The creation of artifacts or products, allows the learner to gain an understanding of the concept studied in-depth (Ostashewski et al., 2011). The student response shows that they become more critical, creative, think systematically and logically, and are able to work well together in completing projects. This shows that the development of computational thinking through supportive activities will have an impact on increasing creativity, critical thinking, systematic thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving. College students’ involvement in using good computational thinking will have an impact on increasing creativity, algorithmic thinking, collaboration and communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving (Durak-Yildiz & Saritepeci, 2018, Günbatar and Bakırcı, 2018, Korkmaz et al., 2017, Saritepeci, 2019, Yağcı, 2018). Artifacts were objects for thinking together (Papert, 1980) and provide learning when others see and give criticism to the resulting artifacts (Butler & Leahy, 2021). So, collaboration is very important for college students who have a lack of understanding regarding formula designing or coding. Students together were responsible for facing difficulties.

The utilization of built-in functions and VBA excel becomes a cognitively challenging computational thinking development activity. During formulating and coding, students have an excessive cognitive load, but because students use the bricolage style, which is to continue to experiment and try different patterns, the cognitive load becomes low. In this case, the lecturer must manage the learning and thinking of students to adopt computational thinking. Butler and Leahy (2021) asserted that learners are active builders of their knowledge through the involvement of constructing artifacts. Therefore, the college student’s bricolage style in experimenting will guide the success of developing computational thinking.

The results of the study also showed that students learn from mistakes, Frownfelter- Lohrke (2017) argued that learning from design mistakes will help students understand good spreadsheets design principles. The ability to identify errors or shortcomings that exist required abstraction, namely focusing on the problem to be solved. The results of the abstraction will be elaborated in small parts that are often called decomposition. After known spreadsheets design errors, college students compile detailed and systematic (algorithmic) corrective steps. Provides several alternative solutions based on previously acquired experience in anticipation if the first solution applied is irrelevant (generalization). The existence of several alternative solutions encourages students to be able to choose the appropriate alternative (evaluation).

6. Conclusion

This study has shown positive student responses to constructionism-based accounting spreadsheet designing activities. It makes two main contributions. First, this study provides an empirical account of how activity design plays an important role in building and enhancing college students’ computational thinking. O-P-E-E-S activities allow college students to engage in using the mindset of abstraction, decomposition, generalization, evaluation, and algorithmic. Second, this study extends Gero and Levin’s (2018) work researching the implementation of Papert’s theory of constructionism to help students develop computational thinking when constructing the difference equation in spreadsheets. This study confirmed that learning activities in constructionism environments can develop computational thinking when college students constructed accounting spreadsheets design.

The findings of the present study gave two main practical implications. First, when teaching the topic of accounting spreadsheets design, a lecturer must provide college students with spreadsheets errors taxonomy. For example, lecturers can guide college students by identifying spreadsheets design’ errors and flaws based on spreadsheets error taxonomy. This activity will allow college students to reflect on the experience of designing spreadsheets while still at the vocational high school or nonvocational high school level. They can share their experience of designing spreadsheets with other college students. For this reason, looking at spreadsheets designs that have been studied at previous levels will allow college students to explore the errors or shortcomings reality of spreadsheets designs that they have studied before. Second, in terms of activity design, spreadsheets learning should be directed to developing the college students’ computational thinking. Therefore, learning activities should be designed to provide an authentic spreadsheets design constructing experience. College students were encouraged to partner with people who have medium-sized trading or industrial ventures.

This study provided an interesting guide on the development of computational thinking through constructionism-based accounting spreadsheets designing activities. However, this study has limitations in terms of duration and intervention. First, the project accounting designing spreadsheets lasted for eight weeks (100 minutes at each meeting) online due to the pandemic. Future longitudinal studies may be needed to investigate college students’ involvement in designing spreadsheets online as well as offline. Second, interventions when shared spreadsheet design online cannot run optimally due to network constraints, such important moments make students unable to provide criticism and suggestions directly, thus increasing the burden on students because they have to re-examine spreadsheets design of other groups outside of lecture hours. In future studies, college students may be able to use social media such as YouTube or relevant platforms as a means of shared spreadsheets design to overcome network constraints. Despite these drawbacks, the study opens up further conversations about how certain pedagogical interventions can assist students in developing their computational thinking as they engage with various accounting cases and participate in a variety of learning activities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received financial support for the research and publication of articles from the Institute for Research and Community Service of Sebelas Maret University in Indonesia.

Notes on contributors

Binti Muchsini

Muchsini Binti is currently a student in the Doctoral Program in Education at Sebelas Maret University, Indonesia, whose research interests include computer literacy, computational thinking, accounting education, and digital learning environments.

  Siswandari

Siswandari is a Professor in the Accounting Education Study Program at Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta, Indonesia, with research interests including financial literacy, entrepreneurship, accounting education, and statistics.

  Gunarhadi

Gunarhadi is a Professor in the Education Studies Program at Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta, Indonesia, whose research interests include digital learning, special education, and learning models.

  Wiranto

Wiranto is a Doctor in the Informatics Study Program at Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta, Indonesia; his research interests include data mining, intelligent systems, and humanized computing.